Title: Authors: Lieu, Kim G.; Marsh, Glenn A.; Wang, Lin-Fa; Netter, Hans J.
Source: ANTIVIRAL RESEARCH, 124 69-76, DEC 2015
Brief summary of the paper: Immune evasion by the lethal henipaviruses, Hendra (HeV) and Nipah virus, is mediated by its interferon (IFN) antagonist P gene products, phosphoprotein (P), and the related V and W proteins, which can target the signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and STAT2 proteins to inhibit IFN/STAT signaling.
However, it is not clear if the recently identified non-pathogenic Henipavirus, Cedar paramyxovirus (CedPV), is also able to antagonize the STAT proteins.
We performed comparative studies between the HeV P gene products (P/V/W) and CedPV-P (CedPV does not encode V or W) and demonstrate that differences exist in their ability to engage the STAT proteins using immunoprecipitation and quantitative confocal microscopic analysis.
In contrast to HeV-P gene encoded proteins, the ability of CedPV-P to interact with and relocalize STAT1 or STAT2 is compromised, correlating with a reduced capacity to inhibit the mRNA synthesis of IFN-inducible gene MxA.
Furthermore, infection studies with HeV and CedPV demonstrate that HeV is more potent than CedPV in inhibiting the IFN-α-mediated nuclear accumulation of STAT1.
These results strongly suggest that the ability of CedPV to counteract the IFN/STAT response is compromised compared to HeV.
