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标题：Surface expression of the hRSV nucleoprotein impairs immunological synapse formation with T cells
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作者：Pablo F. Céspedes ; Susan M. Bueno ; Bruno A. Ramírez 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2014
卷号：111
期号：31
页码：E3214-E3223
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1400760111
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：SignificanceHuman respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children worldwide. The induction of poor T-cell immunological memory causes a high susceptibility to reinfections, which contributes to hRSV spread. Previously, we showed that hRSV inhibits T-cell activation by impairing the assembly of the dendritic cell (DC)-T-cell immunological synapse (IS). Here, we show that the nucleoprotein (N) of hRSV--a canonical cytosolic protein--is expressed on the surface of infected DCs. Further, using the supported-lipid-bilayer system (that mimics the DC/ antigen-presenting cells-membrane composition), we observed that the hRSV N interfered with pMHC-T-cell receptor interactions and inhibited IS assembly. We conclude that hRSV N may therefore be instrumental in impairing the host immune response during infection with this virus. Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in young children worldwide. The recurrent hRSV outbreaks and reinfections are the cause of a significant public health burden and associate with an inefficient antiviral immunity, even after disease resolution. Although several mouse- and human cell-based studies have shown that hRSV infection prevents naive T-cell activation by antigen-presenting cells, the mechanism underlying such inhibition remains unknown. Here, we show that the hRSV nucleoprotein (N) could be at least partially responsible for inhibiting T-cell activation during infection by this virus. Early after infection, the N protein was expressed on the surface of epithelial and dendritic cells, after interacting with trans-Golgi and lysosomal compartments. Further, experiments on supported lipid bilayers loaded with peptide-MHC (pMHC) complexes showed that surface-anchored N protein prevented immunological synapse assembly by naive CD4+ T cells and, to a lesser extent, by antigen-experienced T-cell blasts. Synapse assembly inhibition was in part due to reduced T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling and pMHC clustering at the T-cell-bilayer interface, suggesting that N protein interferes with pMHC-TCR interactions. Moreover, N protein colocalized with the TCR independently of pMHC, consistent with a possible interaction with TCR complex components. Based on these data, we conclude that hRSV N protein expression at the surface of infected cells inhibits T-cell activation. Our study defines this protein as a major virulence factor that contributes to impairing acquired immunity and enhances susceptibility to reinfection by hRSV.
关键词：T lymphocyte priming ; nucleocapsid protein ; cSMAC ; pSMAC