Two posttranslational modifications, ISGylation and phosphorylation, impact the replication of influenza A virus, a human pathogen responsible for high mortality pandemics. The ubiquitin-like ISG15 protein is induced by type 1 interferon (IFN) and is conjugated to many cellular proteins by three enzymes that are also induced by IFN. Experiments using ISG15-knockout (ISG15-/-) mice established that ISG15 and/or its conjugation inhibits the replication of influenza A virus, but inhibition was not detected in mouse embryo fibroblasts in tissue culture. The present study is focused on the effect of ISG15 and/or its conjugation on the replication of influenza A virus in human cells in tissue culture. IFN-induced antiviral activity against influenza A virus in human cells was significantly alleviated by blocking ISG15 conjugation using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) against ISG15 conjugating enzymes. IFN-induced antiviral activity against influenza A virus gene expression and replication was reduced 10-20-fold by suppressing ISG15 conjugation. Unconjugated ISG15 does not contribute to this antiviral activity. Consequently human tissue culture cells can be used to delineate how ISG15 conjugation inhibits influenza A virus replication. SiRNA knockdowns were also used to demonstrate that other IFN-induced proteins, specifically p56, MxA and phospholipid scramblase 1, also inhibit influenza A virus gene expression in human cells. The research on phosphorylation focused on the viral NS1A protein, a multifunctional virulence factor. Although threonine phosphorylation of the NS1A protein was discovered 30 years ago, the sites of phosphorylation and its function had not been identified. A recombinant influenza A virus encoding an epitope-tagged NS1A protein was generated, enabling the purification of NS1A protein from infected cell extracts. Mass spectrometry identified phosphorylation at T49 and T215. A recombinant virus in which phosphorylation at 215 was abolished by replacing T with A is attenuated, and an apparently aberrant NS1A protein is produced. Attenuation did not occur when T was changed to E to mimic a constitutively phosphorylated state, or surprisingly when T was changed to P to mimic avian NS1A proteins. These results suggest that T215 phosphorylation in human viruses and P215 in avian viruses can support analogous functions. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/18116 |
| Date | 02 October 2012 |
| Creators | Hsiang, Tien-ying, 1976- |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | electronic |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works. |
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