Project description:Loss of SAMHD1 causes chronic activaiton of the MDA5/MAVS dsRNA sensing pathway, only when cGAS/STING signaling is intact. Peritoneal macrophages from mutant and control mice were isolated by FACS. Total RNA was subjected to next generation mRNA sequencing.
Project description:Loss of SAMHD1 causes chronic activaiton of the MDA5/MAVS dsRNA sensing pathway, only when cGAS/STING signaling is intact. Peritoneal macrophages from mutant and control mice were isolated by FACS. Total RNA was subjected to next generation mRNA sequencing.
Project description:Aberrant activation of innate immune receptors can cause a spectrum of immune disorders, such as Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS). One such receptor is MDA5, a viral double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sensor that induces antiviral immune response. We here demonstrate that constitutive activation of MDA5 in AGS results from the loss of tolerance to cellular dsRNAs formed by Alu retroelements. While wild-type MDA5 cannot efficiently recognize Alu-dsRNA because its filament formation on dsRNA is impaired by the imperfect duplex structure, AGS-variants of MDA5 display reduced sensitivity to duplex structural irregularities, assembling signaling-competent filaments on Alu-dsRNA. Moreover, we identified an unexpected role of RNA-rich cellular environment in suppressing aberrant MDA5 oligomerization, highlighting context-dependence of self vs. non-self discrimination. Overall, our work demonstrates that the increased efficiency of MDA5 to recognize dsRNA comes at a cost of self-recognition, and implicates a unique role of Alu RNAs as virus-like elements that shape the primate immune system.