Age is a major risk factor for cancer. Alterations in DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin structure and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms are prominent hallmarks of both the aging process and of cancer. Intriguingly – or possibly coincidentally - several chromatin features are common between aging and cancer. Here we ask whether, and if so how, aging-associated chromatin modifications contribute to tumor susceptibility and tumorigenesis.

Autophagy, a general homeostatic process for degradation of cytosolic proteins or organelles, has been reported to modulate the replication of many viruses. The role of autophagy in human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) replication has, however, been uncharacterized. Here, we report that HTLV-1 infection increases the accumulation of autophagosomes and that this accumulation increases HTLV-1 production. We found that the HTLV-1 Tax protein increases cellular autophagosome accumulation by acting to block the fusion of autophagosomes to lysosomes, preventing the degradation of the former by the latter. Interestingly, the inhibition of cellular autophagosome-lysosome fusion using bafilomycin A increased the stability of the Tax protein, suggesting that cellular degradation of Tax occurs in part through autophagy. Our current findings indicate that by interrupting the cell's autophagic process, Tax exerts a positive feedback on its own stability.

No abstract