Microbiology Flashcards
What are type I interferons? What is their function
Polypeptides secreted from infected cells
Three major functions:
1. Induce antimicrobial state in infected and neighbouring cells
2. Modulate innate response to promate Ag presentation and NK but inhibit proinflammation
3. Activate the adaptive immune response
What is the pathway for production of type I interferons?
- Cells infected with virus activate PRRs (by binding PAMPs) which stimulates production of IFN-β which is then secretes from these cells
- IFN-β diffuses and interacts with neighbouring cells
- Switches on genes in neighbouring cells to switch them into an anti-viral state
- Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs) are specialised cells that produce interferon (particularly INF-α)
- Secretion of type I interferon (α and β) will recruit APCs and adaptive immune cells so you amount an adaptive immune response
What are the different types of interferon?
Type I interferon = INFα and IFNβ
Type II interferon = IFNγ
Type III interferon = IFNλ
What produces type I interferon?
- IFNβ is secreted by all cells and IFNAR (receptor) is present on all tissues. IFNβ induction is triggered by IRF-3
- Plasmacytoid dendritic cells are specialist IFNα secreting cells. They express high levels of IRF-7 constitutively
- 1 gene for IFNβ, 13/14 isotypes of IFNα
What produces type II interferon?
IFNγ
- Produced by activated T cells and NK cells
- Signals through a different receptor IFNGR
What produces type III interferon?
IFNλ
- Signals through receptors IL28R and IL10β that are mainly present on epithelial surfaces
(important for respiratory and liver infections)
Where is IFNλ particularly important?
Important at epithelial surfaces
- Respiratory tract
- Liver
Polymorphisms in IFNλ associated with improved outcome from HCV and HBV both spontaneous clearance and response to antiviral therapy
How does the immune system detect self from non-self?
- Detects Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs) (often sense nucleic acid)
- They bind to Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs)
What are the different types of pattern recognition receptor?
Cytoplasmic RIG-1 like receptors (RLRs)
- detect viruses in the cytoplasm
- signal through a mitochondrial located pathway
Endosomal Toll-like receptors (TLRs)
- found on plasma membrane and endosomal membranes
Cytoplasmic nucleotide oligomerization domain receptors (NLRs)
DNA sensors
- most famous is cGAS
- signals to STING on the endoplasmic reticulum
What is the pathway for interferon induction?
- The PRRs will detect PAMPs (e.g. ssRNA) in the cytoplasm of the cell
- RIG-1 will then signal through Mavs (on mitochondrion), which will then trigger signalling through various different pathways, resulting in the translocation of molecules from the cytoplasm to the nucleus
- These transcription factors will become phosphorylated, they bind to the promoter regions of target genes (e.g. IFNβ) and generate transcription
- IFNβ is then released from the cells and travels to neighbouring cells to induce antiviral state
- Host controls the amount of virus in the body
How do TLRs sense virus infection?
- Virus enters the cell and during life cycle will enter endosome, and expose their nucleic acids
(In normal healthy cells there is no nucleic acid in endosomes) - TLRs detect nucleic acid in the endosome and signal to molecule outside the endosome (MyD88) to send various transcription factors to the nucleus of the cell
- Results in switching on of expression of INFα
How is DNA sensed in a cell?
- Single stranded RNA is a PAMP
- RNA unlike normal host RNA is detected
- cGAS is the main way that DNA viruses are sensed
- cGAS is an enzyme that binds to dsDNA in the cytoplasm and synthesises a second messenger- cGAMP
- This small dinucleotide then diffuses to STING (protein), found on the endoplasmic reticulum
- Triggers phosphorylation of the same signalling molecules and transcription factors that the RNA viruses were triggering
- STING is a central player in IFN induction through cGAS
What receptor does interferon bind to? What does activation of the receptor cause?
The IFN receptors are heterodimers of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2
On binding to the cell surface receptor, the interferon signals to the nucleus to switch on the transcription of a whole set of IFN stimulated signals
What is the process of IFN type I signalling?
Heterodimeric IFN receptor composed of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 is present on all cells in the body and senses IFNα and IFNβ
- If IFN binds to IFN receptor it will activate Jak and Tyk which then goes on to phosphorylate the STAT molecules (STAT1 and STAT2)
- STAT molecules dimerise and combine with IRF9 - it then goes to the nucleus and binds to a promoter region that is responsive to that transcription factor
What are the IFN stimulated genes?
- PKR
- 2’5’OAS
- Mx
- ISG15, ISG54, ISG56
- PML bodies
- APOBECs and TRIMs
- ADAR
- Serpine
- Viperin
- miRNAs
- Apoptosis
- Cell cycle arrest
What is the role of IFITM3 in viral infection?
Interferon induced transmembrane protein 3
- IFITM3 sits on the membrane of endosomes, in cells previously stimulated with IFN
- If virus tries to enter the cell it gets trapped in the endosome because IFITM3 modifies the membrane and prevents the virus from being able to fuse with the membrane and release it’s genome into the cell
People lacking IFITM3 get more severe influenza
What are the antiviral mediators Mx1 and Mx2? What do they do?
- GTPase with a homology to dynamin
- Mx can form multimers that wrap around the nucleocapsids of incoming viruses as they try to enter the nucleus
Mx1 = inhibits influenza Mx2 = inhibits HIV
How long does the IFN antiviral state last?
- IFN response may only be maintained for several hours
- Subsequently the ability to respond to IFN is lost due to negative regulation
- SOCS suppressor of cytokine signalling genes turn off the response
- As a state it is very toxic so can only be maintained for a brief period
How do viruses evade IFN response?
- Avoid detection by hiding the PAMP in inaccessible parts of the cell
- Interfere globally with host cell gene expression and/or protein synthesis (to stop production of IFN)
- Block IFN induction cascades by destroying or binding
- Inhibit IFN signalling
- Block the action of individual IFN induced antiviral enzymes
- Activate SOCS
- Replication strategy that is insensitive to IFN
How does hepatitis C evade the IFN response?
Hepatitis C: NS3/4
- Protease acts as antagonist to IFN induction by cleaving MAVs
MAVs is important in detecting Hep C through the RIG-1 pathway
- Causes destruction of the sensor system
- Normally Hep C will be detected by RIG-1 receptors- which will signal to MAVs, which will switch on the IFN response
- Instead Hep C rapidly synthesises NS3/4, which cleaves MAVs away from the mitochondrion and prevents the signal from getting through
How does influenza evade the IFN response?
Influenza: NS1
- Acts as antagonist to IFN induction by binding to RIG-1/TRIM25/RNA complex and preventing activation of signalling pathway
- Also prevents nuclear processing of newly induced genes
- Normally influenza will trigger RIG-1 via the production of viral RNA in the cytoplasm, which would signal MAVs, but the NS1 protein in influenza binds to RIG/Trim25 complex, which detects viral RNA, and stops it triggering the pathway
- NSI also migrates to the nucleus where it prevents the export of newly synthesised genes
How do Pox viruses prevent IFN response?
- Pox viruses and herpes viruses are large DNA viruses
- More than half the pox virus genome is comprised of accessory genes that modify the immune response
- Pox viruses encode soluble cytokine receptors (vaccinia virus B18), that are being developed as possible future immune therapies, as they mop up IFN and prevent it reaching it’s receptor
How does Ebola virus evade immune mechanisms?
It encodes 2 proteins that are particularly important:
- VP35: inhibits the RIG-1 pathway
- VP24: stops the signal from getting through from the IFNβ receptor to the nucleus (stops STAT1 molecules from getting to the nucleus)
Production of these proteins means that the virus can continue to replicate to incredibly high titres because the patient is unable to amount a proper immune response
What determines the viral load and therefore outcome of the infection?
Combination of damage of infected cells by the virus and damage of infected and bystander cells by the immune response
- Host senses the presence of the virus and switches on sets of genes to try and stops the virus
- At the same time the virus coevolves with the host to have a set of it’s own genes, which counteract what the host is trying to do