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Martin CK, Yin P, Kielian M. The sticky business of Alphavirus capsid-host interactions. Trends Microbiol 2024:S0966-842X(24)00288-9. [PMID: 39665907 DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2024.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2024] [Revised: 11/01/2024] [Accepted: 11/06/2024] [Indexed: 12/13/2024]
Abstract
Alphaviruses are a serious threat to global health and can cause lethal encephalitic or arthritogenic disease in humans and animals. As there are no licensed antivirals, it is critical to improve our understanding of alphavirus interactions with the host cell. Here, we focus on the essential alphavirus protein capsid. While its roles in genome packaging and virus assembly have been wellstudied, much less is known about capsid's interactions with host proteins and their functional relevance for infection. Recently, several new capsid interactor candidates were identified, collectively emphasising the complexity of capsid-host biology. In this review we summarise these novel interactor candidates, highlight capsid's emerging role in immune evasion, and discuss the challenges and opportunities arising from capsid-host interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline K Martin
- Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
| | - Peiqi Yin
- Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Margaret Kielian
- Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
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2
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Wang H, Jin W, Li Z, Guo C, Zhang L, Fu L. Targeting eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF2K) with small-molecule inhibitors for cancer therapy. Drug Discov Today 2024; 29:104155. [PMID: 39214495 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2024.104155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2024] [Revised: 08/15/2024] [Accepted: 08/24/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024]
Abstract
Eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF2K) is a member of the α-kinase family that is activated by calcium/calmodulin. Of note, eEF2K is crucial for regulating translation and is often highly overexpressed in malignant cells. Therefore in this review, we summarize the molecular structure of eEF2K and its oncogenic roles in cancer. Moreover, we further discuss the inhibition of eEF2K with small-molecule inhibitors and other new emerging therapeutic strategies in cancer therapy. Taken together, these inspiring findings provide new insights into a promising strategy for inhibiting eEF2K to greatly improve future cancer therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huiping Wang
- Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Drugs, School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
| | - Wenke Jin
- Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Drugs, School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
| | - Zixiang Li
- Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Drugs, School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
| | - Chuanxin Guo
- Nucleic Acid Division, Shanghai Cell Therapy Group, Shanghai 201805, China.
| | - Lan Zhang
- Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Drugs, School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China.
| | - Leilei Fu
- Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Drugs, School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China.
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Nelemans T, Tas A, Kikkert M, van Hemert MJ. Usutu virus NS4A suppresses the host interferon response by disrupting MAVS signaling. Virus Res 2024; 347:199431. [PMID: 38969013 PMCID: PMC11292556 DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2024.199431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2024] [Revised: 06/15/2024] [Accepted: 07/02/2024] [Indexed: 07/07/2024]
Abstract
Usutu virus (USUV) is an emerging flavivirus that can infect birds and mammals. In humans, in severe cases, it may cause neuroinvasive disease. The innate immune system, and in particular the interferon response, functions as the important first line of defense against invading pathogens such as USUV. Many, if not all, viruses have developed mechanisms to suppress and/or evade the interferon response in order to facilitate their replication. The ability of USUV to antagonize the interferon response has so far remained largely unexplored. Using dual-luciferase reporter assays we observed that multiple of the USUV nonstructural (NS) proteins were involved in suppressing IFN-β production and signaling. In particular NS4A was very effective at suppressing IFN-β production. We found that NS4A interacted with the mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) and thereby blocked its interaction with melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA5), resulting in reduced IFN-β production. The TM1 domain of NS4A was found to be essential for binding to MAVS. By screening a panel of flavivirus NS4A proteins we found that the interaction of NS4A with MAVS is conserved among flaviviruses. The increased understanding of the role of NS4A in flavivirus immune evasion could aid the development of vaccines and therapeutic strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessa Nelemans
- Molecular Virology Laboratory, Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Ali Tas
- Molecular Virology Laboratory, Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Marjolein Kikkert
- Molecular Virology Laboratory, Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Martijn J van Hemert
- Molecular Virology Laboratory, Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Ware BC, Parks MG, da Silva MOL, Morrison TE. Chikungunya virus infection disrupts MHC-I antigen presentation via nonstructural protein 2. PLoS Pathog 2024; 20:e1011794. [PMID: 38483968 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2023] [Revised: 03/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/04/2024] [Indexed: 03/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Infection by chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a mosquito-borne alphavirus, causes severe polyarthralgia and polymyalgia, which can last in some people for months to years. Chronic CHIKV disease signs and symptoms are associated with the persistence of viral nucleic acid and antigen in tissues. Like humans and nonhuman primates, CHIKV infection in mice results in the development of robust adaptive antiviral immune responses. Despite this, joint tissue fibroblasts survive CHIKV infection and can support persistent viral replication, suggesting that they escape immune surveillance. Here, using a recombinant CHIKV strain encoding the fluorescent protein VENUS with an embedded CD8+ T cell epitope, SIINFEKL, we observed a marked loss of both MHC class I (MHC-I) surface expression and antigen presentation by CHIKV-infected joint tissue fibroblasts. Both in vivo and ex vivo infected joint tissue fibroblasts displayed reduced cell surface levels of H2-Kb and H2-Db MHC-I proteins while maintaining similar levels of other cell surface proteins. Mutations within the methyl transferase-like domain of the CHIKV nonstructural protein 2 (nsP2) increased MHC-I cell surface expression and antigen presentation efficiency by CHIKV-infected cells. Moreover, expression of WT nsP2 alone, but not nsP2 with mutations in the methyltransferase-like domain, resulted in decreased MHC-I antigen presentation efficiency. MHC-I surface expression and antigen presentation was rescued by replacing VENUS-SIINFEKL with SIINFEKL tethered to β2-microglobulin in the CHIKV genome, which bypasses the requirement for peptide processing and TAP-mediated peptide transport into the endoplasmic reticulum. Collectively, this work suggests that CHIKV escapes the surveillance of antiviral CD8+ T cells, in part, by nsP2-mediated disruption of MHC-I antigen presentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian C Ware
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
| | - M Guston Parks
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Mariana O L da Silva
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
- Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Goes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Thomas E Morrison
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
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Ventoso I, Berlanga JJ, Toribio R, Díaz-López I. Translational Control of Alphavirus-Host Interactions: Implications in Viral Evolution, Tropism and Antiviral Response. Viruses 2024; 16:205. [PMID: 38399981 PMCID: PMC10893052 DOI: 10.3390/v16020205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Alphaviruses can replicate in arthropods and in many vertebrate species including humankind, but only in vertebrate cells do infections with these viruses result in a strong inhibition of host translation and transcription. Translation shutoff by alphaviruses is a multifactorial process that involves both host- and virus-induced mechanisms, and some of them are not completely understood. Alphavirus genomes contain cis-acting elements (RNA structures and dinucleotide composition) and encode protein activities that promote the translational and transcriptional resistance to type I IFN-induced antiviral effectors. Among them, IFIT1, ZAP and PKR have played a relevant role in alphavirus evolution, since they have promoted the emergence of multiple viral evasion mechanisms at the translational level. In this review, we will discuss how the adaptations of alphaviruses to vertebrate hosts likely involved the acquisition of new features in viral mRNAs and proteins to overcome the effect of type I IFN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iván Ventoso
- Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” (CSIC-UAM) and Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), 28049 Madrid, Spain;
| | - Juan José Berlanga
- Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” (CSIC-UAM) and Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), 28049 Madrid, Spain;
| | - René Toribio
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid-Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (UPM-INIA), 28049 Madrid, Spain;
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Crawford JM, Buechlein AM, Moline DA, Rusch DB, Hardy RW. Host Derivation of Sindbis Virus Influences Mammalian Type I Interferon Response to Infection. Viruses 2023; 15:1685. [PMID: 37632027 PMCID: PMC10458878 DOI: 10.3390/v15081685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Arboviruses are defined by their ability to replicate in both mosquito vectors and mammalian hosts. There is good evidence that arboviruses "prime" their progeny for infection of the next host, such as via differential glycosylation of their outer glycoproteins or packaging of host ribosomal subunits. We and others have previously shown that mosquito-derived viruses more efficiently infect mammalian cells than mammalian-derived viruses. These observations are consistent with arboviruses acquiring host-specific adaptations, and we hypothesized that a virus derived from either the mammalian host or mosquito vector elicits different responses when infecting the mammalian host. Here, we perform an RNA-sequencing analysis of the transcriptional response of Human Embryonic Kidney 293 (HEK-293) cells to infection with either mosquito (Aedes albopictus, C7/10)- or mammalian (Baby Hamster Kidney, BHK-21)-derived Sindbis virus (SINV). We show that the C7/10-derived virus infection leads to a more robust transcriptional response in HEK-293s compared to infection with the BHK-derived virus. Surprisingly, despite more efficient infection, we found an increase in interferon-β (IFN-β) and interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) transcripts in response to the C7/10-derived virus infection versus the BHK-derived virus infection. However, translation of interferon-stimulated genes was lower in HEK-293s infected with the C7/10-derived virus, starkly contrasting with the transcriptional response. This inhibition of ISG translation is reflective of a more rapid overall shut-off of host cell translation following infection with the C7/10-derived virus. Finally, we show that the C7/10-derived virus infection of HEK-293 cells leads to elevated levels of phosphorylated eukaryotic translation elongation factor-2 (eEF2), identifying a potential mechanism leading to the more rapid shut-off of host translation. We postulate that the rapid shut-off of host translation in mammalian cells infected with the mosquito-derived virus acts to counter the IFN-β-stimulated transcriptional response.
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Affiliation(s)
- John M. Crawford
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; (J.M.C.); (D.A.M.)
| | - Aaron M. Buechlein
- Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; (A.M.B.); (D.B.R.)
| | - Davis A. Moline
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; (J.M.C.); (D.A.M.)
| | - Douglas B. Rusch
- Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; (A.M.B.); (D.B.R.)
| | - Richard W. Hardy
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; (J.M.C.); (D.A.M.)
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Han L, Song S, Feng H, Ma J, Wei W, Si F. A roadmap for developing Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) vaccines: Lessons from the past, strategies for the future. Int J Biol Macromol 2023:125514. [PMID: 37353130 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.125514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/25/2023]
Abstract
Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), which can lead to severe central nervous system infections in both humans and animals. At present, the medical community does not possess a viable means of addressing VEE, rendering the prevention of the virus a matter of paramount importance. Regarding the prevention and control of VEEV, the implementation of a vaccination program has been recognized as the most efficient strategy. Nevertheless, there are currently no licensed vaccines or drugs available for human use against VEEV. This imperative has led to a surge of interest in vaccine research, with VEEV being a prime focus for researchers in the field. In this paper, we initially present a comprehensive overview of the current taxonomic classification of VEEV and the cellular infection mechanism of the virus. Subsequently, we provide a detailed introduction of the prominent VEEV vaccine types presently available, including inactivated vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, genetic, and virus-like particle vaccines. Moreover, we emphasize the challenges that current VEEV vaccine development faces and suggest urgent measures that must be taken to overcome these obstacles. Notably, based on our latest research, we propose the feasibility of incorporation codon usage bias strategies to create the novel VEEV vaccine. Finally, we prose several areas that future VEEV vaccine development should focus on. Our objective is to encourage collaboration between the medical and veterinary communities, expedite the translation of existing vaccines from laboratory to clinical applications, while also preparing for future outbreaks of new VEEV variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lulu Han
- Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genetics and Breeding, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Breeding Pig, Shanghai 201106, China; Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Clinical Medical College of Henan University, Kai Feng 475000, China
| | - Shuai Song
- Institute of Animal Health, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Livestock Disease Prevention of Guangdong Province, Scientific Observation and Experiment Station of Veterinary Drugs and Diagnostic Techniques of Guangdong Province, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangzhou 510640, PR China
| | - Huilin Feng
- Kaifeng Key Laboratory of Infection and Biological Safety, School of Basic Medical Sciences of Henan University, Kai Feng 475000, China
| | - Jing Ma
- Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Clinical Medical College of Henan University, Kai Feng 475000, China
| | - Wenqiang Wei
- Kaifeng Key Laboratory of Infection and Biological Safety, School of Basic Medical Sciences of Henan University, Kai Feng 475000, China.
| | - Fusheng Si
- Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genetics and Breeding, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Breeding Pig, Shanghai 201106, China.
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