Protective versus Pathogenic Type I Interferon Responses during Virus Infections.

Following virus infections, type I interferons are synthesized to induce the expression of antiviral molecules and interfere with virus replication. The importance of early antiviral type I IFN response against virus invasion has been emphasized during COVID-19 as well as in studies on the microbiome. Further, type I IFNs can directly act on various immune cells to enhance protective host immune responses to viral infections. However, accumulating data indicate that IFN responses can be harmful to the host by instigating inflammatory responses or inducing T cell suppression during virus infections. Also, inhibition of lymphocyte and dendritic cell development can be caused by type I IFN, which is independent of the traditional signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 signaling. Additionally, IFNs were shown to impair airway epithelial cell proliferation, which may affect late-stage lung tissue recovery from the infection. As such, type I IFN-virus interaction research is diverse, including host antiviral innate immune mechanisms in cells, viral strategies of IFN evasion, protective immunity, excessive inflammation, immune suppression, and regulation of tissue repair. In this report, these IFN activities are summarized with an emphasis placed on the functions of type I IFNs recently observed during acute or chronic virus infections.

Threonyl-tRNA Synthetase Promotes T Helper Type 1 Cell Responses by Inducing Dendritic Cell Maturation and IL-12 Production via an NF-κB Pathway.

Threonyl-tRNA synthetase (TRS) is an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase that catalyzes the aminoacylation of tRNA by transferring threonine. In addition to an essential role in translation, TRS was extracellularly detected in autoimmune diseases and also exhibited pro-angiogenetic activity. TRS is reported to be secreted into the extracellular space when vascular endothelial cells encounter tumor necrosis factor-α. As T helper (Th) type 1 response and IFN-γ levels are associated with autoimmunity and angiogenesis, in this study, we investigated the effects of TRS on dendritic cell (DC) activation and CD4 T cell polarization. TRS-treated DCs exhibited up-regulated expression of activation-related cell-surface molecules, including CD40, CD80, CD86, and MHC class II. Treatment of DCs with TRS resulted in a significant increase of IL-12 production. TRS triggered nuclear translocation of the NF-κB p65 subunit along with the degradation of IκB proteins and the phosphorylation of MAPKs in DCs. Additionally, MAPK inhibitors markedly recovered the degradation of IκB proteins and the increased IL-12 production in TRS-treated DCs, suggesting the involvement of MAPKs as the upstream regulators of NF-κB in TRS-induced DC maturation and activation. Importantly, TRS-stimulated DCs significantly increased the populations of IFN-γ+CD4 T cells, and the levels of IFN-γ when co-cultured with CD4+ T cells. The addition of a neutralizing anti-IL-12 mAb to the cell cultures of TRS-treated DCs and CD4+ T cells resulted in decreased IFN-γ production, indicating that TRS-stimulated DCs may enhance the Th1 response through DC-derived IL-12. Injection of OT-II mice with OVA-pulsed, TRS-treated DCs also enhanced Ag-specific Th1 responses in vivo. Importantly, injection with TRS-treated DC exhibited increased populations of IFN-γ+-CD4+ and -CD8+ T cells as well as secretion level of IFN-γ, resulting in viral clearance and increased survival periods in mice infected with influenza A virus (IAV), as the Th1 response is associated with the enhanced cellular immunity, including anti-viral activity. Taken together, these results indicate that TRS promotes the maturation and activation of DCs, DC-mediated Th1 responses, and anti-viral effect on IAV infection.

Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation potentiates the infectivity of influenza A virus by regulating the host redox state.

During influenza A virus (IAV) infection, significant effects of oxidative stress often emerge due to the disruption of the redox balance. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated during IAV infection have been known to exert various effects on both the virus and host tissue. However, the mechanisms underlying the accumulation of ROS and their physiological significance in IAV infection have been extensively studied but remain to be fully understood. Here, we show that the levels of Sp1, a key controller of Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene expression, and SOD1 are mainly dependent upon the activity of X-box-binding protein 1 (XBP1), which is a downstream factor of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) transmembrane sensor inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1) during ER stress. In IRE1-deficient mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) or A549 human lung cells treated with XBP1 siRNA, IAV-induced Sp1 loss was mitigated. However, overexpression of the spliced form of XBP1 in IRE1-deficient MEFs resulted in a further decrease in Sp1 levels, whereas the unspliced form showed no significant differences. Treatment with proteasome inhibitor MG132 markedly inhibited the IRE1/XBP1-mediated loss of Sp1 and SOD, suggesting the involvement of proteasome-dependent ER-associated degradation (ERAD). The increase in SOD1 levels with the expression of siRNA-targeting p97, a central component of the ubiquitin-proteasome system, supports the major role of the ERAD process in IAV-mediated SOD1 loss. In addition, ROS generation due to IAV infection was attenuated in cells lacking either IRE1 or JNK. These results reveal the important roles of both IRE1/XBP1-mediated ERAD and the JNK pathway in IAV infection. Interestingly, the increase in ROS due to IAV infection is correlated with the increase in the virus titer in vitro and in vivo. However, 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PBA), an inhibitor of ER stress signaling, weakened the effect of IAV infection on SOD1 loss in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the treatment of mice with 4-PBA efficiently attenuated ROS generation and ER stress in lung tissue and eventually lowered the IAV titer. These results strongly suggest that the ERAD process plays a major role in IAV infection, thus making it a potential target for antiviral drug therapy.

Influenza A virus-induced autophagy contributes to enhancement of virus infectivity by SOD1 downregulation in alveolar epithelial cells.

Infection with influenza A virus (IAV) A/WSN/1933 (H1N1) causes oxidative stress and severe lung injury. We have demonstrated that the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during IAV infection is tightly regulated by superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) and correlated with viral replication in alveolar epithelial cells. However, the molecular mechanism underlying SOD1 reduction during IAV infection is uncertain. Here we demonstrate that the autophagy pathway is activated by IAV infection and involved in enhanced ROS generation in the early phase of infection. We observed that IAV infection induced autophagic vacuolation, leading to autophagic degradation of cellular proteins, including the protease sensitive antioxidant SOD1. Silencing of the microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 (LC3) gene in A549 cells supported the critical role of autophagy in the ROS increase. The decrease in viral titer and viral polymerase activity caused by LC3 silencing or the autophagy inhibitor clearly evidenced the involvement of autophagy in the control of ROS generation and viral infectivity. Therefore, we concluded that early stage IAV infection induces autophagic degradation of antioxidant enzyme SOD1, thereby contributing to increased ROS generation and viral infectivity in alveolar epithelial cells.

Influenza A virus PB1-F2 is involved in regulation of cellular redox state in alveolar epithelial cells.

Occurrence of oxidative stress is common in influenza, and renders the host more susceptible to pathogenic effects including cell death. We previously reported that down-regulation of superoxide anion dismutase 1 (SOD1) by influenza A virus (IAV) resulted in a significant increase in the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and viral PB1 polymerase gene product in the early stage of infection. However, the precise molecular mechanism of IAV-mediated ROS generation is not yet fully understood. In this study, we investigated the possible involvement of the key virulence factor PB1-F2 in ROS generation and its contribution to the viral propagation and cell death. The key virulence factor PB1-F2 was found to be responsible, at least in part, for the ROS generation through lowering the SOD1 level in alveolar epithelial A549 cells. PB1-F2 overexpression resulted in SOD1 diminishment and ROS enhancement, while another virulent factor, NS1, did not show significant changes. Inversely, we examined the effects of the absence of PB1-F2 using mutant IAV lacking PB1-F2 expression (mutantΔF2). Infection with mutantΔF2 virus did not significantly lower the SOD1 level, and thus generated moderately low levels of ROS. In addition, the oxidative activity of PB1-F2 was directly reflected by cell viability and death. Infection with the mutant virus reduced the percentage of apoptotic cells more than two-fold compared to the wild-type IAV in A549 cells. Furthermore, expression of exogenous SOD1 gene abrogated a large portion of the PB1-F2-induced apoptosis of cells infected with wild-type IAV, but affected much less of the mutantΔF2 virus-infected cells. These results suggest that the PB1-F2 is directly implicated in virus-induced oxidative stress, thereby contributing to the early stages of IAV replication cycle and ultimately to disease severity.

Alteration of copper-zinc superoxide dismutase 1 expression by influenza A virus is correlated with virus replication.

Viruses have evolved mechanisms designated to potentiate virus replication by modulating the physiological condition of host cells. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during infection with influenza virus A (IAV) is a well-established mechanism in animals, but little is known about the generation of ROS in in vitro cell culture models and about its role in virus replication. We show here that IAV H1N1 infected human alveolar cells increased superoxide anion level mainly by suppressing the copper-zinc superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene, and that the SOD1-controlled generation of ROS was tightly correlated with virus replication. The transcription factor Sp1, which is a major element of the proximal region of the sod1 promoter, was slightly downregulated at the transcriptional level during IAV infection, and subsequently modulated by post-translational control. A gradual reduction of whole Sp1 was largely responsible for the repression of sod1 transcription with increasing time post-infection, and their rescue by the proteasome inhibitor, MG132, proved the involvement of proteasomal degradation in Sp1 regulation during IAV infection. Furthermore, we observed that expression of viral polymerase PB1 was inversely proportional to SOD1 level. The antioxidant N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) neutralized IAV-mediated oxidative stress, and either NAC treatment or sod1 transfection considerably diminished viral polymerase activity. These data indicate that IAV-induced SOD1 repression, which may cause impaired redox balance in host cells, can be attributed, at least in part, to enhance viral replication.