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Short Communication |


1 Institute of Veterinary Virology, University of Bern, CH-3001 Bern, Switzerland
2 Institute of Virology (FB Veterinärmedizin), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
Correspondence
Matthias Schweizer
matthias.schweizer{at}ivv.unibe.ch
| ABSTRACT |
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/β) synthesis. This study demonstrated that authentic, enzymically active Erns produced in mammalian cells prevented a dsRNA-induced IFN response when present in the supernatant of bovine cells. Strikingly, IFN synthesis of cells expressing Erns was eliminated after extracellular addition, but not transfection, of dsRNA. Importantly, the same applied to cells infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) expressing Erns but lacking the N-terminal protease Npro. Free Erns concentrations circulating in the blood of animals persistently infected with BVDV were determined to be approximately 50 ng ml–1, i.e. at a similar order of magnitude as that displaying an effect on dsRNA-induced IFN expression in vitro. Whilst Npro blocks interferon regulatory factor-3-dependent IFN induction in infected cells, Erns may prevent constant IFN induction in uninfected cells by dsRNA that could originate from pestivirus-infected cells. This probably contributes to the survival of persistently BVDV-infected animals and maintains viral persistence in the host population.
These authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
| MAIN TEXT |
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Over the past few years, it has become apparent that virtually all viruses express proteins that target the host's IFN defence mechanisms. Collectively, these proteins target either the induction pathways or the mechanism of IFN action (for a review, see Randall & Goodbourn, 2008
). Induction of IFN is initiated by extracellular or intracellular pattern recognition receptors that sense molecular patterns that indicate viral infection (Beutler et al., 2007
). In the case of positive- and negative-sense RNA viruses, dsRNA, a by-product of viral RNA replication, and 5'-triphosphorylated RNA, respectively, are believed to be the most important IFN inducers (Pichlmair & Sousa, 2007
). Once the extracellular or intracellular pattern recognition receptors are activated, a signal pathway is initiated that results in IFN-
/β transcription and release of IFN from infected cells. IFN then binds to the type I receptor, with the ensuing signal cascade leading to the formation of over 100 IFN-stimulated proteins that mediate the antiviral effect (Der et al., 1998
).
BVDV encodes two gene products that have been implicated in IFN evasion. The non-structural protein Npro, a protease encoded at the 5' end of the 12.5 kb viral genome, has been shown to target the transcription factor interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-3 for proteasomal degradation (Hilton et al., 2006
; Seago et al., 2007
). The second protein, Erns, is a highly N-glycosylated endoRNase that forms disulfide-linked homodimers. Erns is an essential structural component of pestivirus particles but is also secreted from infected cells (Rümenapf et al., 1993
; Schneider et al., 1993
). Using Erns produced in insect cells, it has been shown that it interacts with extracellular dsRNA, thereby targeting a major viral IFN-inducing signal (Iqbal et al., 2004
). Insect cell-produced proteins significantly differ in the state of glycosylation and also functionally from their counterparts synthesized in mammalian cells (Kost et al., 2005
). Therefore, we studied the mechanism and site of action of Erns expressed in bovine cells and Erns in the context of intact virus.
Erns was expressed in bovine Madin–Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) Tet-On cells using a tetracycline-inducible expression plasmid as described previously (Krey et al., 2005
). Briefly, wild-type (wt) and mutant Erns cDNA was obtained from BVDV strain Ncp7 or classical swine fever virus (CSFV) strain Alfort by RT-PCR. H30F and H30R mutations in BVDV and CSFV Erns, respectively, were introduced using a QuikChange mutagenesis kit (Stratagene). MDBK Tet-On cell lines stably transfected with Erns were selected using G418 and puromycin. The resulting MDBK Tet-On/Erns cell clones were monitored for inducible Erns expression by immunoperoxidase staining with a monoclonal antibody (mAb 50F4-10) to Erns at 48 h after the addition of 1 µg doxycycline ml–1. MDBK-expressed BVDV Ncp7 Erns was identical in apparent molecular mass to that secreted by BVDV-infected cells. Furthermore, MDBK Tet-On/Erns cells allowed the propagation of BVDV strain Ncp7 with a deletion of the entire Erns gene (Ncp7-
Erns), suggesting its functional authenticity.
Initially, we compared the dose–response curves for inactivation of IFN induction by insect cell-grown Erns (kindly provided by M. Iqbal, Institute for Animal Health, UK) with that expressed by MDBK cells. We found that insect cell-expressed recombinant Erns of BVDV strain Pe515 (Iqbal et al., 2004
) was able to prevent IFN induction in bovine turbinate (BT) cells (isolated as described by Schweizer & Peterhans, 2001
) stimulated with the synthetic dsRNA poly(IC). As shown by the absence of Mx, a widely used sensitive marker for the activity of IFN (von Wussow et al., 1990
) that can also be used in bovine cells (Schweizer & Peterhans, 2001
; Schweizer et al., 2006
), Erns inhibited the induction of Mx in a dose-dependent fashion, as analysed by Western blotting. Complete inhibition was achieved at concentrations above 250 ng ml–1 when the cells were stimulated with 1 µg poly(IC) ml–1 (Fig. 1a
). Next, the effect of insect cell-expressed Erns was compared with that harvested from bovine cells. The latter was concentrated by ultracentrifugation of the cell-culture supernatant using a 10 kDa cut-off membrane (Sartorius Vivaspin). The concentration of Erns was determined with a commercially available ELISA (Idexx Laboratories), taking purified insect cell-expressed Erns as the standard. The RNase activity of Erns was determined as described previously (Iqbal et al., 2004
) using poly(U) as the substrate and was found to be similar to that of its counterpart expressed in the baculovirus system in insect cells (Fig. 1d
). The bovine cell-expressed protein inhibited the effect of poly(IC) in a concentration range similar to that of insect cell-expressed Erns (Fig. 1a and b
). The supernatant of MDBK Tet-On cells, which constitutively express the reverse Tet-responsive transcriptional activator alone, served as a negative control and failed to inhibit the effect of poly(IC) (Fig. 1b
). To assess the role of the RNase activity of Erns, we used supernatants from MDBK Tet-On cells stably transfected with an Erns plasmid containing a mutation of the catalytic residue His-30 to Phe (Erns-H30F), resulting in a complete loss of enzymic activity (Fig. 1d
). RNase-inactive Erns failed to inhibit the effect of poly(IC), even when tested at high concentrations (9 µg ml–1) in cells challenged with low amounts (1 µg ml–1) of poly(IC) (Fig. 1c
). Similarly, control supernatants of MDBK Tet-On cells expressing no Erns that were concentrated in parallel to Erns-H30F were inactive against poly(IC) and did not induce Mx when tested in the absence of poly(IC) (Fig. 1c
).
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Regardless of its biological origin, enzymically active Erns added to the medium was capable of interfering with the effect of dsRNA on Mx induction. To study the possible site of action, we used cells expressing Erns or cells that were infected with the non-cytopathic BVDV strain Ncp7 and compared the effect of the addition of poly(IC) to the supernatant with that of lipofected poly(IC). MDBK Tet-On cells containing or not wt or RNase– Erns plasmids were stimulated for 48 h with doxycycline before removing the supernatant and adding 100 µg poly(IC) ml–1 to the supernatant or lipofecting with 1 µg poly(IC) ml–1 (Schweizer & Peterhans, 2001
). At 24 h post-treatment, whole-cell extracts were prepared and assayed for Mx and IRF-3 by Western blotting. All cells expressed Mx in response to transfected poly(IC) and to recombinant bovine (rbo) IFN-
added to the supernatant as a positive control (Fig. 2
). Mx expression was only eliminated when poly(IC) was added to the supernatant of cells expressing wt but not RNase– Erns of BVDV strain Ncp7 (Fig. 2a, b
) or of CSFV strain Alfort (not shown). Remarkably, inhibition of Mx expression was observed even when poly(IC) was added to cells in fresh medium after removing the Erns-containing medium and washing the cells. Importantly, both IFN-
and lipofected poly(IC) induced Mx as well as IRF-3 above the background level observed in mock-treated or mock-lipofected cultures. Cells infected with BVDV strain Ncp7 (m.o.i. of 3), in contrast to the other treatments, were clearly negative for both IRF-3 and Mx expression (Fig. 2
). The results obtained in cells expressing RNase– Erns, as well as those of MDBK Tet-On cells, again indicated that the RNase activity of Erns was essential for the elimination of IFN induction by dsRNA. Moreover, the fact that virus infection prevented Mx induction and at the same time led to the complete disappearance of IRF-3 suggested that the effect of intact virus may be independent of Erns. Previous work has suggested that the effect on IRF-3 of pestiviruses may be mediated through Npro, which targets IRF-3 for proteasomal degradation (Bauhofer et al., 2007
; Chen et al., 2007
; Hilton et al., 2006
; Seago et al., 2007
).
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Npro), Mx synthesis stimulated by up to 100 µg poly(IC) ml–1 added extracellularly in fresh medium after removing the cell culture supernatant was also completely blocked, whereas no inhibition was observed upon transfection of dsRNA (Fig. 3c
was not reduced in cells infected with either strain, indicating that signalling through the IFN I receptor was not influenced by viral infection (Fig. 3
Npro induced Mx expression in the absence of stimulation with poly(IC) or rboIFN-
as early as approximately 2 days post-infection (not shown), as has also been reported for CSFV and BVDV (Gil et al., 2006
Npro could not be demonstrated in BT cells. However, due to a lower replication efficiency in MDBK cells, it was only at about 5 days post-infection that we observed Mx expression by the mutant virus in the absence of any other stimulus (not shown), which enabled us to analyse the effect of poly(IC) at earlier time points (Fig. 3
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Received 29 April 2008;
accepted 16 June 2008.
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