Functional activities of the human T-cell leukemia virus type I Tax oncoprotein: cellular signaling through NF-κB

Human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is the etiological agent for adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), as well as for tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) and HTLV-I associate myelopathy (HAM). A biological understanding of the involvement of HTLV-I and in ATL has focused significantly on the workings of the virally-encoded 40 kDa phospho-oncoprotein, Tax. Tax is a transcriptional activator. Its ability to modulate the expression and function of many cellular genes has been reasoned to be a major contributory mechanism explaining HTLV-I-mediated transformation of cells. In activating cellular gene expression, Tax impinges upon several cellular signal-transduction pathways, including those for CREB/ATF and NF-κB. In this paper, we review aspects of Tax's transcriptional potential with particular focus on recent evidence linking Tax to IKK (IκB-kinase)-complex and MAP3Ks (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinases).