INHIBITORY EFFECT OF TANNIC-ACID ON HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS PROMOTER ACTIVITY-INDUCED BY 12-O-TETRA DECANOYLPHORBOL-13-ACETATE IN JURKAT T-CELLS

We investigated the effect of tannic acid, a potent inhibitor of poly( ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase, on human viral gene transcription, by usin g chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) assay experiments transfect ing Jurkat cells with CAT reporter constructs that contain the promote r region of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or of human T-cell leuk emia virus type I (HTLV-I). The activity of HIV promoter induced by tr eatment with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate was suppressed by th e addition of tannic acid. On the other hand, HTLV-I promoter activity induced by the p40(tax) expression plasmid was not affected by tannic acid treatment. Deletion analysis of the HIV promoter revealed that a 30-bp element located immediately upstream of NF-kappa B motifs was r esponsible for the suppressive effect of tannic acid. This was support ed by the observations that the negative effect of tannic acid was int roduced to tannic acid-non-responsive tymidine kinase promoter by the insertion of this element 5'-upstream of the promoter. (C) 1996 Academ ic Press, Inc.