T-CELL TRANSFORMATION BY RECOMBINANT HVS SUBGROUP C

摘要

The invention concerns the transformation of T-lymphocytes to stable growth by infecting said T-cells with strains of HVS subgroup C, in which specific mutations in the Tip gene were introduced, preferably leading to nonconservative changes in Tip amino acid residues that are relevant to phosphorylation of amino acid side chains, more specifically Tyrosine residue side chains. The transformed cells grow independently of antigen stimulation and can have a phenotype of mature activated T-cells. In contrast to the wildtype virus, transformation is also very efficient when IL-2 is not added to the cell culture medium during or after infection. Infection with aforementioned mutant subgroup C strains of HVS can thus be used to generate human or primate T-cell lines, preferably growing independent of IL-2 and without constitutive STAT3 phosphorylation, for a variety of immunological and biochemical applications, as well as for therapeutic use.