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Ablation of the regulatory IE1 protein of murine cytomegalovirus alters in vivo pro-inflammatory TNF-alpha production during acute infection.

ABSTRACT: Little is known about the role of viral genes in modulating host cytokine responses. Here we report a new functional role of the viral encoded IE1 protein of the murine cytomegalovirus in sculpting the inflammatory response in an acute infection. In time course experiments of infected primary macrophages (M?s) measuring cytokine production levels, genetic ablation of the immediate-early 1 (ie1) gene results in a significant increase in TNF? production. Intracellular staining for cytokine production and viral early gene expression shows that TNF? production is highly associated with the productively infected M? population of cells. The ie1- dependent phenotype of enhanced M? TNF? production occurs at both protein and RNA levels. Noticeably, we show in a series of in vivo infection experiments that in multiple organs the presence of ie1 potently inhibits the pro-inflammatory cytokine response. From these experiments, levels of TNF?, and to a lesser extent IFN?, but not the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10, are moderated in the presence of ie1. The ie1- mediated inhibition of TNF? production has a similar quantitative phenotype profile in infection of susceptible (BALB/c) and resistant (C57BL/6) mouse strains as well as in a severe immuno-ablative model of infection. In vitro experiments with infected macrophages reveal that deletion of ie1 results in increased sensitivity of viral replication to TNF? inhibition. However, in vivo infection studies show that genetic ablation of TNF? or TNFRp55 receptor is not sufficient to rescue the restricted replication phenotype of the ie1 mutant virus. These results provide, for the first time, evidence for a role of IE1 as a regulator of the pro-inflammatory response and demonstrate a specific pathogen gene capable of moderating the host production of TNF? in vivo.

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Martin S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3431344 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ablation of the regulatory IE1 protein of murine cytomegalovirus alters in vivo pro-inflammatory TNF-alpha production during acute infection.

Rodríguez-Martín Sara S Kropp Kai Alexander KA Wilhelmi Vanessa V Lisnic Vanda Juranic VJ Hsieh Wei Yuan WY Blanc Mathieu M Livingston Andrew A Busche Andreas A Tekotte Hille H Messerle Martin M Auer Manfred M Fraser Iain I Jonjic Stipan S Angulo Ana A Reddehase Matthias J MJ Ghazal Peter P

PLoS pathogens 20120830 8

Little is known about the role of viral genes in modulating host cytokine responses. Here we report a new functional role of the viral encoded IE1 protein of the murine cytomegalovirus in sculpting the inflammatory response in an acute infection. In time course experiments of infected primary macrophages (MΦs) measuring cytokine production levels, genetic ablation of the immediate-early 1 (ie1) gene results in a significant increase in TNFα production. Intracellular staining for cytokine product ...[more]

PMID: 22952450

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Project description:BackgroundPhosphatidylcholine (PC) is a major lipid of the gastrointestinal mucus layer. We recently showed that mucus from patients suffering from ulcerative colitis has low levels of PC. Clinical studies reveal that the therapeutic addition of PC to the colonic mucus using slow release preparations is beneficial. The positive role of PC in this disease is still unclear; however, we have recently shown that PC has an intrinsic anti-inflammatory property. It could be demonstrated that the exogenous application of PC inhibits membrane-dependent actin assembly and TNF-alpha-induced nuclear NF-kappaB activation. We investigate here in more detail the hypothesis that the exogenous application of PC has anti-inflammatory properties.MethodsPC species with different fatty acid side chains were applied to differentiated and non-differentiated Caco-2 cells treated with TNF-alpha to induce a pro-inflammatory response. We analysed TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB-activation via the transient expression of a NF-kappaB-luciferase reporter system. Pro-inflammatory gene transcription was detected with the help of a quantitative real time (RT)-PCR analysis. We assessed the binding of TNF-alpha to its receptor by FACS and analysed lipid rafts by isolating detergent resistant membranes (DRMs).ResultsThe exogenous addition of all PC species tested significantly inhibited TNF-alpha-induced pro-inflammatory signalling. The expression levels of IL-8, ICAM-1, IP-10, MCP-1, TNF-alpha and MMP-1 were significantly reduced after PC pre-treatment for at least two hours. The effect was comparable to the inhibition of NF-kB by the NF-kB inhibitor SN 50 and was not due to a reduced binding of TNF-alpha to its receptor or a decreased surface expression of TNF-alpha receptors. PC was also effective when applied to the apical side of polarised Caco-2 cultures if cells were stimulated from the basolateral side. PC treatment changed the compartmentation of the TNF-alpha-receptors 1 and 2 to DRMs.ConclusionPC induces a prolonged inhibition of TNF-alpha-induced pro-inflammatory signalling. This inhibition may be caused by a shift of the TNF-alpha receptors at the surface to lipid rafts. Our results may offer a potential molecular explanation for the positive role of PC seen in clinical studies for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Project description:The human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate early 1 (IE1) protein has evolved as a multifunctional antagonist of intrinsic and innate immune mechanisms. In addition, this protein serves as a transactivator and potential genome maintenance protein. Recently, the crystal structures of the human and rat CMV IE1 (hIE1, rIE1) core domain were solved. Despite low sequence identity, the respective structures display a highly similar, all alpha-helical fold with distinct variations. To elucidate which activities of IE1 are either species-specific or conserved, this study aimed at a comparative analysis of hIE1 and rIE1 functions. To facilitate the quantitative evaluation of interactions between IE1 and cellular proteins, a sensitive NanoBRET assay was established. This confirmed the species-specific interaction of IE1 with the cellular restriction factor promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) and with the DNA replication factor flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1). To characterize the respective binding surfaces, helix exchange mutants were generated by swapping hIE1 helices with the corresponding rIE1 helices. Interestingly, while all mutants were defective for PML binding, loss of FEN1 interaction was confined to the exchange of helices 1 and 2, suggesting that FEN1 binds to the stalk region of IE1. Furthermore, our data reveal that both hIE1 and rIE1 antagonize human STAT2; however, distinct regions of the respective viral proteins mediated the interaction. Finally, while PML, FEN1, and STAT2 binding were conserved between primate and rodent proteins, we detected that rIE1 lacks a chromatin tethering function suggesting that this activity is dispensable for rat CMV. In conclusion, our study revealed conserved and distinct functions of primate and rodent IE1 proteins, further supporting the concept that IE1 proteins underwent a narrow co-evolution with their respective hosts to maximize their efficacy in antagonizing innate immune mechanisms and supporting viral replication.

Dataset Information

Ablation of the regulatory IE1 protein of murine cytomegalovirus alters in vivo pro-inflammatory TNF-alpha production during acute infection.

Publications

Ablation of the regulatory IE1 protein of murine cytomegalovirus alters in vivo pro-inflammatory TNF-alpha production during acute infection.

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