Murine Gammaherpesvirus 68 Pathogenesis Is Independent of Caspase-1 and Caspase-11 in Mice and Impairs Interleukin-1β Production upon Extrinsic Stimulation in Culture. J Virol 2015 Jul;89(13):6562-74
Date
04/10/2015Pubmed ID
25855746Pubmed Central ID
PMC4468508DOI
10.1128/JVI.00658-15Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84930892258 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 19 CitationsAbstract
UNLABELLED: Gammaherpesviruses establish lifelong infections that are associated with the development of cancer. These viruses subvert many aspects of the innate and adaptive immune response of the host. The inflammasome, a macromolecular protein complex that controls inflammatory responses to intracellular danger signals generated by pathogens, is both activated and subverted during human gammaherpesvirus infection in culture. The impact of the inflammasome response on gammaherpesvirus replication and latency in vivo is not known. Caspase-1 is the inflammasome effector protease that cleaves the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18. We infected caspase-1-deficient mice with murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) and observed no impact on acute replication in the lung or latency and reactivation from latency in the spleen. This led us to examine the effect of viral infection on inflammasome responses in bone marrow-derived macrophages. We determined that infection of macrophages with MHV68 led to a robust interferon response but failed to activate caspase-1 or induce the secretion of IL-1β. In addition, MHV68 infection led to a reduction in IL-1β production after extrinsic lipopolysaccharide stimulation or upon coinfection with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Interestingly, this impairment occurred at the proIL-1β transcript level and was independent of the RTA, the viral lytic replication and transcription activator. Taken together, MHV68 impairs the inflammasome response by inhibiting IL-1β production during the initial stages of infection.
IMPORTANCE: Gammaherpesviruses persist for the lifetime of the host. To accomplish this, they must evade recognition and clearance by the immune system. The inflammasome consists of proteins that detect foreign molecules in the cell and respond by secreting proinflammatory signaling proteins that recruit immune cells to clear the infection. Unexpectedly, we found that murine gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis was not enhanced in mice lacking caspase-1, a critical inflammasome component. This led us to investigate whether the virus actively impairs the inflammasome response. We found that the inflammasome was not activated upon macrophage cell infection with murine gammaherpesvirus 68. Infection also prevented the host cell inflammasome response to other pathogen-associated molecular patterns, indicated by reduced production of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β upon bacterial coinfection. Taken together, murine gammaherpesvirus impairment of the inflammatory cytokine IL-1β in macrophages identifies one mechanism by which the virus may inhibit caspase-1-dependent immune responses in the infected animal.
Author List
Cieniewicz B, Dong Q, Li G, Forrest JC, Mounce BC, Tarakanova VL, van der Velden A, Krug LTAuthor
Vera Tarakanova PhD Professor in the Microbiology and Immunology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AnimalsCaspase 1
Caspases
Caspases, Initiator
Herpesviridae Infections
Inflammasomes
Interferons
Interleukin-1beta
Lipopolysaccharides
Lung
Macrophages
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Knockout
Rhadinovirus
Salmonella typhimurium
Spleen
Tumor Virus Infections
Virus Activation
Virus Latency
Virus Replication