Interferon Flashcards
Which gene is key to the interferon induction pathway? What does deficiency in this lead to?
IRF-7
lack of IFN-alpha
IRF-3 gene does what?
Influences IFN resposne
IRF-7 gene does what?
key to the interferon induction pathway
3 levels of virus immunity and examples?
- Intrinsic – skin, mucous, all barriers that keep viruses out of the body
- Innate – fast acting and non-specific which is switched on when viruses are detected. Is what makes you feel ill because it switches on inflammatory chemokines and cytokines
- Acquired – takes a longer time to respond and remembers the virus for the future.
What inside host cells decides if a nucleic acid is self or pathogenic
ZAP
What does ZAP do and where is it
Inside host cells decides if a nucleic acid is self or pathogenic
What indicates to ZAP that a nucleic acid is foreign
If it has a lot of CpG (CG dinucleotides)
3 functions of IFN?
- Induce antimicrobial state in infected and neighbouring cells
- Modulate innate response to promote antigen presentation and natural killers but inhibit pro-inflammation
- Activate the adaptive immune response (by enhancing B and T cells)
What are type 1 IFNs?
alpha and beta
What cells secrete IFN beta
All
What cells have IFN-alpha receptors
All
What triggers IFN-beta induction
IRF3
What cells secrete IFN-alpha
plasmacytoid Dendritic cells
How many types of INF alpha and beta are there
- One gene for IFN- so only one type, 13/14 isotypes of IFN-
What triggers IFN-alpha induction
IRF-7
What is T2 IFN?
IFN-gamma
What produces IFN-g
- Produced by activated T cells and NK cells
What type of cells do IFN-lambda signal through
Epithelial
Where is IFN-lambda important (2)
Epithelial surfaces and liver
Epithelial cells make what interferons
IFN-lambda, and IFN-alpha or IFN-beta
How do we differentiate self from non-self (mention 2 key things - what differentiates us, and how do we notice this different thing)
- Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs) are things that all viruses have that our own cells do not have
- Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) see these viral PAMPs
3 PRR examples?
RLR, TLR, NLR
cytoplasmic RIG-I like receptors RLRs (sitting in the cytoplasm to bind to viruses in the cytoplasm) , endosomal Toll like receptors TLRs (membrane proteins), cytoplasmic nucleotide oligomerization domain receptors NLRs
Examples of a DNA sensor?
cGAS
What is cGAS an example of?
DNA sensor
What downstream molecule do PRRs interact with which causes phosphorylation of IRF3 or IRF7
MAVS
What activates MAVS
PRRs
What does MAVS cause
phosphorylation of IRF3 (or IRF7 in the plasmacytoid dendritic cells)
What causes phosphorylation of IRF3
MAVS
What causes phosphorylation of IRF7
MAVS
Where is IRF7 found
in plasmacytoid dendritic cells
Describe the pathway taken for IFN to be produced starting from virus entering cell
enters a cell and produces RNA (for the purpose of this example it is an RNA virus)
- The RNA is recognised by a PRR in the cytoplasm, e.g. RIG-I
- Upon binding viral RNA, PRRs change shape, unfold and interact with a downstream molecule called Mavs
- Mavs sends a signal through other pathways which ends up phosphorylating IRF3 (or IRF7 in the plasmacytoid dendritic cells)
- IRF3 then moves into the nucleus and sits on the promotor of the IFN- gene
- This causes production of IFN- and the desired response
What does MAVS stand for
mitochondrial associated viral signaller
where do TLRs sit (2)
mitochondrial associated viral signaller
What do TLRs recognise
- TLRs will see single stranded RNA inside the endosome/cell surface
what does activation of a TLR do (does X by Y Z)
y is a verb
- TLRs will see single stranded RNA inside the endosome/cell surface, activate and send a signal into the nucleus of a cell
- This will switch on the expression of the IFN- gene by phosphorylating IRF3