The human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-␣) gene is rapidly activated in response to multiple signals of stress and inflammation. We have identified transcription factors present in the TNF-␣ enhancer complex in vivo following ionophore stimulation (ATF-2/Jun and NFAT) and virus infection (ATF-2/Jun, NFAT, and Sp1), demonstrating a novel role for NFAT and Sp1 in virus induction of gene expression. We show that virus infection results in calcium flux and calcineurin-dependent NFAT dephosphorylation; however, relatively lower levels of NFAT are present in the nucleus following virus infection as compared to ionophore stimulation. Strikingly, Sp1 functionally synergizes with NFAT and ATF-2/c-jun in the activation of TNF-␣ gene transcription and selectively associates with the TNF-␣ promoter upon virus infection but not upon ionophore stimulation in vivo. We conclude that the specificity of TNF-␣ transcriptional activation is achieved through the assembly of stimulus-specific enhancer complexes and through synergistic interactions among the distinct activators within these enhancer complexes.

We have identified three new human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) promoter polymorphisms with single nucleotide (nt) substitutions at -862, -856, and -574 nt relative to the TNF-alpha transcription start site. The -862 and -856 nt TNF-alpha promoter polymorphisms occur with high frequency in Caucasian and Cambodian individuals and are each non-randomly associated with three extended HLA haplotypes. This study, in which 61 independent TNF-alpha promoters were analyzed spanning from -977 to +93 nt relative to the TNF-alpha mRNA cap site, establishes a new canonical TNF-alpha promoter sequence. Furthermore, we show that none of the three novel polymorphisms at -862, -856 and -574 nt or polymorphisms previously described at positions -238, -308 and +70 have an effect upon TNF-alpha gene expression in activated lymphocytes. Thus, these TNF-alpha promoter polymorphisms likely serve as markers for neighboring genes encoding HLA or other undefined molecules in the MHC that may influence disease susceptibility.

Certain HLA-B antigens have been associated with lack of progression to AIDS. HLA-B alleles can be divided into two mutually exclusive groups based on the expression of the molecular epitopes HLA-Bw4 and HLA-Bw6. Notably, in addition to its role in presenting viral peptides for immune recognition, the HLA-Bw4, but not HLA-Bw6, motif functions as a ligand for a natural killer cell inhibitory receptor (KIR). Here, we show that profound suppression of HIV-1 viremia is significantly associated with homozygosity for HLA-B alleles that share the HLA-Bw4 epitope. Furthermore, homozygosity for HLA-Bw4 alleles was also significantly associated with the ability to remain AIDS free and to maintain a normal CD4 T cell count in a second cohort of HIV-1-infected individuals with well defined dates of seroconversion. This association was independent of the presence of a mutation in CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) associated with resistance to HIV-1 infection, and it was independent of the presence of HLA alleles that could potentially confound the results. We conclude that homozygosity for HLA-Bw4-bearing B alleles is associated with a significant advantage and that the HLA-Bw4 motif is important in AIDS pathogenesis.

Context.-Although tuberculosis (TB) is the leading worldwide cause of death due to an infectious disease, the extent to which progressive clinical disease is associated with genetic host factors remains undefined. Objective.-To determine the distribution of HLA antigens and the frequency of 2 alleles of the tumor necrosis factor ␣ (TNF-␣) gene in unrelated individuals with clinical TB (cases) compared with individuals with no history of clinical TB (controls) in a population with a high prevalence of TB exposure. Design.-A 2-stage, case-control molecular typing study conducted in 1995-1996. Setting.-Three district hospitals in Svay Rieng Province in rural Cambodia. Patients.-A total of 78 patients with clinical TB and 49 controls were included in the first stage and 48 patients with TB and 39 controls from the same area and socioeconomic status were included in the second stage. Main Outcome Measures.-Presence of HLA class I and class II alleles determined by sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization and presence of 2 TNF-␣ alleles determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Results.-In the first stage, 7 DQB1*0503 alleles were detected among 156 alleles derived from patients with TB, whereas no DQB1*0503 alleles were found among the 98 alleles derived from controls (P=.04). There was no detectable difference in the distribution of the 2 TNF-␣ alleles in patients with TB compared with controls. In the second stage, we tested for the presence of a single variable, the DQB1*0503 allele, and found 9 DQB1*0503 alleles among 96 alleles derived from patients with TB and no DQB1*0503 alleles among 78 alleles in controls (P=.005). Conclusions.-The HLA-DQB1*0503 allele is significantly associated with susceptibility to TB in Cambodian patients and, to our knowledge, is the first identified gene associated with development of clinical TB.

The human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) gene encodes a pleiotropic cytokine that plays a critical role in basic immunologic processes. To investigate the TNF-alpha regulatory region in the primate lineage, we isolated TNF-alpha promoters from representative great apes, Old World monkeys, and New World monkeys. We demonstrate that there is a nonuniform distribution of fixed human differences in the TNF-alpha promoter. We define a "fixed human difference" as a site that is not polymorphic in humans, but which differs in at least one of the seven primate sequences examined. Furthermore, we identify two human TNF-alpha promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms that are putative ancestral polymorphisms, because each of the human polymorphic nucleotides was found at the identical site in at least one of the other primate sequences. Strikingly, the largest conserved region among the primate species, a 69-nt "phylogenetic footprint," corresponds to a region of the human TNF-alpha promoter that forms the transcriptionally active nucleoprotein-DNA complex, essential for gene regulation. By contrast, other regions of the TNF-alpha promoter, which exhibit a high density of variable sites, are nonessential for gene expression, indicating that distinct TNF-alpha promoter regions have been subjected to different evolutionary constraints depending on their function. TNF-alpha is the first case in which a promoter region dissected by functional analyses can be correlated with nucleotide polymorphism and variability in primate lineages. The results suggest that patterns of polymorphism and divergence are likely to be useful in identifying candidate regions important for gene regulation in other immune-response genes.

The level of ongoing HIV-1 replication within an individual is critical to HIV-1 pathogenesis. Among host immune factors, the cytokine TNF-α has previously been shown to increase HIV-1 replication in various monocyte and T cell model systems. Here, we demonstrate that signaling through the TNF receptor family member, the lymphotoxin-β (LT-β) receptor (LT-βR), also regulates HIV-1 replication. Furthermore, HIV-1 replication is cooperatively stimulated when the distinct LT-βR and TNF receptor systems are simultaneously engaged by their specific ligands. Moreover, in a physiological coculture cellular assay system, we show that membrane-bound TNF-α and LT-α1β2 act virtually identically to their soluble forms in the regulation of HIV-1 replication. Thus, cosignaling via the LT-β and TNF-α receptors is probably involved in the modulation of HIV-1 replication and the subsequent determination of HIV-1 viral burden in monocytes. Intriguingly, surface expression of LT-α1β2 is up-regulated on a T cell line acutely infected with HIV-1, suggesting a positive feedback loop between HIV-1 infection, LT-α1β2 expression, and HIV-1 replication. Given the critical role that LT-α1β2 plays in lymphoid architecture, we speculate that LT-α1β2 may be involved in HIV-associated abnormalities of the lymphoid organs.