Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
Virology. 2011 Dec 5;421(1):51-60. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2011.08.008. Epub 2011 Oct 7.
dsRNA-activated protein kinase (PKR) is activated by viral dsRNAs and phosphorylates eIF2a reducing translation of host and viral mRNA. Although infection with a chimeric West Nile virus (WNV) efficiently induced PKR and eIF2a phosphorylation, infections with natural lineage 1 or 2 strains did not. Investigation of the mechanism of suppression showed that among the cellular PKR inhibitor proteins tested, only Nck, known to interact with inactive PKR, colocalized and co-immunoprecipitated with PKR in WNV-infected cells and PKR phosphorylation did not increase in infected Nck1,2-/- cells. Several WNV stem-loop RNAs efficiently activated PKR in vitro but not in infected cells. WNV infection did not interfere with intracellular PKR activation by poly(I:C) and similar virus yields were produced by control and PKR-/- cells. The results indicate that PKR phosphorylation is not actively suppressed in WNV-infected cells but that PKR is not activated by the viral dsRNA in infected cells.
双链 RNA 激活的蛋白激酶(PKR)可被病毒双链 RNA 激活,并使真核起始因子 2α磷酸化,从而减少宿主和病毒 mRNA 的翻译。尽管嵌合西尼罗河病毒(WNV)的感染能有效地诱导 PKR 和 eIF2a 的磷酸化,但天然谱系 1 或 2 株的感染却不能。抑制机制的研究表明,在所测试的细胞 PKR 抑制剂蛋白中,只有 Nck,已知与失活的 PKR 相互作用,与 WNV 感染细胞中的 PKR 共定位并共免疫沉淀,而感染 Nck1,2-/-细胞中的 PKR 磷酸化并未增加。几种 WNV 茎环 RNA 可有效地在体外激活 PKR,但不能在感染细胞中激活。WNV 感染不干扰细胞内聚肌苷酸(poly(I:C))激活的 PKR,且对照和 PKR-/-细胞产生的病毒产量相似。结果表明,WNV 感染细胞中 PKR 磷酸化不是被主动抑制的,但病毒 dsRNA 不能在感染细胞中激活 PKR。