INTERFERON-ALPHA-INDUCED HUMAN LUPUS INCLUSIONS AND P36 PROTEIN IN CANCER AND AIDS

Previous work showed that IFN-alpha induced the autoimmune-associated lupus inclusions (LI) in all 16 umbilical cord mononuclear cell sample s from healthy mothers, In contrast, IFN-alpha induced LI and the LI-a ssociated protein, p36, in only 2 of 16 human B lymphoblastoid cell li nes, Resistance of these 14 cell lines to form LI and p36 may be due t o their stage of development or differentiation or their transformed s tate, We sought to determine whether aging, neoplastic transformation, and HIV infection affected the observed IFN-alpha induction of LI in cord blood mononuclear cells, Expression of LI and p36 was investigate d in PBMC on IFN-alpha chemotherapy and on culturing IFN-alpha with PB MC samples prepared from healthy adults and AIDS patients, The IFN-alp ha induction of LI (detected by electron microscopy) or p36 (detected by two-dimensional gels) in all of the PBMC samples from these individ uals was indistinguishable from the cord blood mononuclear cell respon se, Furthermore, induction of p36 and LI was not a good indicator of e ffective IFN-alpha chemotherapy, It may be consequential for autoimmun ity induced by IFN-alpha in cancer, AIDS, and systemic lupus erythemat osus (SLE), An essential biologic role for p36 and LI is suggested by a highly homologous p36 gene in the invertebrate Caenorhabditis elegan s.