Tick-borne encephalitis virus inhibits rRNA synthesis and host protein production in human cells of neural origin.

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), a member of the genus Flavivirus (Flaviviridae), is a causative agent of a severe neuroinfection. Recently, several flaviviruses have been shown to interact with host protein synthesis. In order to determine whether TBEV interacts with this host process in its n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Main Authors: Martin Selinger, Hana Tykalová, Ján Štěrba, Pavlína Věchtová, Zuzana Vavrušková, Jaroslava Lieskovská, Alain Kohl, Esther Schnettler, Libor Grubhoffer
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007745
https://doaj.org/article/485609578341417ea7cf057bd8cf8eb1
Description
Summary:Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), a member of the genus Flavivirus (Flaviviridae), is a causative agent of a severe neuroinfection. Recently, several flaviviruses have been shown to interact with host protein synthesis. In order to determine whether TBEV interacts with this host process in its natural target cells, we analysed de novo protein synthesis in a human cell line derived from cerebellar medulloblastoma (DAOY HTB-186). We observed a significant decrease in the rate of host protein synthesis, including the housekeeping genes HPRT1 and GAPDH and the known interferon-stimulated gene viperin. In addition, TBEV infection resulted in a specific decrease of RNA polymerase I (POLR1) transcripts, 18S and 28S rRNAs and their precursor, 45-47S pre-rRNA, but had no effect on the POLR3 transcribed 5S rRNA levels. To our knowledge, this is the first report of flavivirus-induced decrease of specifically POLR1 rRNA transcripts accompanied by host translational shut-off.