Identification of Alpha Interferon-Induced Genes Associated with Antiviral Activity in Daudi Cells and Characterization of IFIT3 as a Novel Antiviral Gene

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, type I interferons (IFNs) have emerged as major components of the innate immune system and are recognized for their ability to combat viral infections. The major type I human IFNs include the IFN-␣ subtypes, IFN-␤, and IFN-. In addition to their antiviral (AV) function, these proteins also have antiproliferative (AP) and immunomodulatory effects on cells (10, 41). Therapeutic approaches have exploited the multiple effects of IFN, with human IFN-␣2 approved for the treatment of hepatitis B and C, as well as certain forms of cancer. Identification of genes important for AV function holds considerable potential for the development of novel prophylactics and therapeutics. However, delineating genes associated specifically with AV function from genes involved in other IFN functions has been challenging.To activate IFN-stimulated gene transcription, the type I IFNs bind to their receptors and initiate intracellular signaling through the JAK/STAT pathway (15, 17). IFN gene expression profiles have been previously studied by using microarray analysis (5,13,16,23,28,34,40), but this work has been unable to identify IFN-induced genes under conditions that allow for AV protection without growth inhibition. Moreover, although it is possible to perform AP or AV assays individually (1, 3, 37, 30), no assay has been described in the literature that measures both activities simultaneously.Effective delineation of genes and proteins associated with AP and AV responses is hindered by the lack of a single platform approach. Using human Burkitt's lymphoma (Daudi) cells as the cell model, we modified an MTT assay to identify conditions that allowed for AV protection but not AP activities. Treatments with IFN-␣2c and IFN hybrid 2 [HY-2, IFN␣21b(1-95)/IFN-␣2c(96-165)] were compared, and conditions for AV protection without AP activity were identified. Gene expression analysis under conditions of AV protection revealed a set of 25 genes that are important for AV activity, with the most upregulated gene identified as IFN-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 3 (IFIT3).IFIT3 was recently described as a key mediator of AP activity of IFN-␣ (36). The AP effect of IFIT3 correlated with increased p21 and p27, two factors that negatively regulate progression of the cell cycle from G 1 phase into S phase (36). The transcription of IFIT3 is mediated by the formation of the ISGF3 complex containing pSTAT1, pSTAT2, and IRF9, but it also can be mediated by IRF1 through IRF9/STAT2-dependent or -independent mechanisms (18). Different mechanisms inducing IFIT3 highlight the importance of this protein in IFN-␣ functions. However, IFIT3 was not previously shown to be associated with IFN AV activity.In summary, this research provides a novel assay that distinguishes between AV and AP activities of type I IFNs on a Daudi cell line. Using conditions from this assay, in conjunction with gene expression analysis, enabled us to identify a number of genes not previously associated with the AV effect of IFN. IFIT3 was the most ...

hsp70 and a Novel Axis of Type I Interferon-Dependent Antiviral Immunity in the Measles Virus-Infected Brain

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Nucleolin Interacts with the Dengue Virus Capsid Protein and Plays a Role in Formation of Infectious Virus Particles

“…The forward and reverse norovirus G2 primers were as follows: 5=-TGTGAATGAAGATGG CGTC-3= and 5=-GCTTGTACAAAATTATTTCTAATCCA-3=. The qRT-PCR primers for GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) and IFIT3 were as previously described (60).…”

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