Diminished Innate Antiviral Response to Adenovirus Vectors in cGAS/STING-Deficient Mice Minimally Impacts Adaptive Immunity.

TitleDiminished Innate Antiviral Response to Adenovirus Vectors in cGAS/STING-Deficient Mice Minimally Impacts Adaptive Immunity.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsAnghelina D, Lam E, Falck-Pedersen E
JournalJ Virol
Volume90
Issue13
Pagination5915-27
Date Published2016 07 01
ISSN1098-5514
KeywordsAdaptive Immunity, Adenoviridae Infections, Adenoviruses, Human, Animals, Antibodies, Neutralizing, Chemokines, Dendritic Cells, DNA, Viral, Genetic Vectors, Hepatocytes, Humans, Immunity, Innate, Interferon-beta, Macrophages, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Knockout, Nucleotidyltransferases, Signal Transduction, Virus Replication
Abstract

UNLABELLED: Infection by adenovirus, a nonenveloped DNA virus, induces antiviral innate and adaptive immune responses. Studies of transformed human and murine cell lines using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown strategies identified cyclic guanine adenine synthase (cGAS) as a pattern recognition receptor (PRR) that contributes to the antiadenovirus response. Here we demonstrate how the cGAS/STING cascade influences the antiviral innate and adaptive immune responses in a murine knockout model. Using knockout bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMOs), we determined that cGAS and STING are essential to the induction of the antiadenovirus response in these antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in vitro We next determined how the cGAS/STING cascade impacts the antiviral response following systemic administration of a recombinant adenovirus type 5 vector (rAd5V). Infection of cGAS(-/-) and STING(-/-) mice results in a compromised early antiviral innate response compared to that in wild-type (WT) controls: significantly lower levels of beta interferon (IFN-β) secretion, low levels of proinflammatory chemokine induction, and reduced levels of antiviral transcript induction in hepatic tissue. At 24 h postinfection, levels of viral DNA and reporter gene expression in the liver were similar in all strains. At 28 days postinfection, clearance of infected hepatocytes in cGAS or STING knockout mice was comparable to that in WT C57BL/6 mice. Levels of neutralizing anti-Ad5V antibody were modestly reduced in infected cGAS mice. These data support a dominant role for the cGAS/STING cascade in the early innate antiviral inflammatory response to adenovirus vectors. However, loss of the cGAS/STING pathway did not affect viral clearance, and cGAS deficiency had a modest influence on the magnitude of the antiviral humoral immune response to adenovirus infections.

IMPORTANCE: The detection of viral infection by host sentinel immune cells contributes to the activation of a complex and varied antiviral innate and adaptive immune response, which limits virus replication, spread, and susceptibility to infection. In this study, we have characterized how the cGAS/STING DNA-sensing cascade contributes to early detection of adenovirus infections. cGAS influences APC activation and early innate antiviral inflammatory immune responses, but adaptive immune pathways associated with virus clearance and anti-Ad antibody production were minimally influenced by the loss of the cGAS PRR signaling cascade.

DOI10.1128/JVI.00500-16
Alternate JournalJ Virol
PubMed ID27076643
PubMed Central IDPMC4907218
Grant ListR01 AI094050 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States

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