miRNA profiling of Jurkat with stably integrated HTLV1-LTR in the presence of HTLV-1 Tax

RNA interference (RNAi) is a natural cellular mechanism to silence gene expression and is predominantly mediated by microRNAs (miRNAs) that target messenger RNA. Viruses can manipulate the cellular processes necessary for their replication by targeting the host RNAi machinery. This study explores the effect of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) transactivating protein Tax on the RNAi pathway in the context of a chromosomally integrated viral long terminal repeat (LTR) using a CD4(+) T-cell line, Jurkat. Jurkat cells with stably integrated HTLV1-LTR were transfected with either pCMV-Tax or pCMV. Total miRNA was isolated, labeled and hybridized to the miRNA microarray as described by the manufacturer (Invitrogen). The hybridized slides were then analyzed on a GenePix scanner.