Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Beaverton, Oregon, United States of America.
Department of Immunobiology, BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS Pathog. 2019 Nov 14;15(11):e1007854. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007854. eCollection 2019 Nov.
Reactivation of latent Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) is closely linked to hematopoiesis. Viral latency requires maintenance of the progenitor cell quiescence, while reactivation initiates following mobilization of HPCs to the periphery and differentiation into CD14+ macrophages. Early growth response gene 1 (EGR-1) is a transcription factor activated by Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling that is essential for the maintenance of CD34+ HPC self-renewal in the bone marrow niche. Down-regulation of EGR-1 results in mobilization and differentiation of CD34+ HPC from the bone marrow to the periphery. In the current study we demonstrate that the transcription factor EGR-1 is directly targeted for down-regulation by HCMV miR-US22 that results in decreased proliferation of CD34+ HPCs and a decrease in total hematopoietic colony formation. We also show that an HCMV miR-US22 mutant fails to reactivate in CD34+ HPCs, indicating that expression of EGR-1 inhibits viral reactivation. Since EGR-1 promotes CD34+ HPC self-renewal in the bone marrow niche, HCMV miR-US22 down-regulation of EGR-1 is a necessary step to block HPC self-renewal and proliferation to induce a cellular differentiation pathway necessary to promote reactivation of virus.
潜伏的人类巨细胞病毒 (HCMV) 在 CD34+造血祖细胞 (HPC) 中的重新激活与造血密切相关。病毒潜伏期需要维持祖细胞静止,而在 HPC 动员到外周并分化为 CD14+巨噬细胞后,重新激活就会开始。早期生长反应基因 1 (EGR-1) 是一种转录因子,受表皮生长因子受体 (EGFR) 信号激活,对于维持骨髓龛中 CD34+HPC 的自我更新至关重要。EGR-1 的下调会导致 CD34+HPC 从骨髓动员到外周。在本研究中,我们证明转录因子 EGR-1 是由 HCMV miR-US22 直接下调的靶标,导致 CD34+HPC 的增殖减少和总造血集落形成减少。我们还表明,HCMV miR-US22 突变体不能在 CD34+HPC 中重新激活,表明 EGR-1 的表达抑制病毒重新激活。由于 EGR-1 促进骨髓龛中 CD34+HPC 的自我更新,因此 HCMV miR-US22 下调 EGR-1 是阻止 HPC 自我更新和增殖以诱导促进病毒重新激活所需的细胞分化途径的必要步骤。