The interferon (IFN) system is an extremely powerful antiviral response that is capable of controlling most, if not all, virus infections in the absence of adaptive immunity. However, viruses can still replicate and cause disease in vivo, because they have some strategy for at least partially circumventing the IFN response. We reviewed this topic in 2000 [Goodbourn, S., Didcock, L. & Randall, R. E. (2000). J Gen Virol 81, 2341-2364] but, since then, a great deal has been discovered about the molecular mechanisms of the IFN response and how different viruses circumvent it. This information is of fundamental interest, but may also have practical application in the design and manufacture of attenuated virus vaccines and the development of novel antiviral drugs. In the first part of this review, we describe how viruses activate the IFN system, how IFNs induce transcription of their target genes and the mechanism of action of IFN-induced proteins with antiviral action. In the second part, we describe how viruses circumvent the IFN response. Here, we reflect upon possible consequences for both the virus and host of the different strategies that viruses have evolved and discuss whether certain viruses have exploited the IFN response to modulate their life cycle (e.g. to establish and maintain persistent/latent infections), whether perturbation of the IFN response by persistent infections can lead to chronic disease, and the importance of the IFN system as a species barrier to virus infections. Lastly, we briefly describe applied aspects that arise from an increase in our knowledge in this area, including vaccine design and manufacture, the development of novel antiviral drugs and the use of IFN-sensitive oncolytic viruses in the treatment of cancer. Biology of the interferon systemThe interferons (IFNs) are a group of secreted cytokines that elicit distinct antiviral effects. They are grouped into three classes called type I, II and III IFNs, according to their amino acid sequence. Type I IFNs (discovered in 1957;Isaacs & Lindenmann, 1957) comprise a large group of molecules; mammals have multiple distinct IFN-a genes (13 in man), one to three IFN-b genes (one in man) and other genes, such as IFN-v, -e, -t, -d and -k. The IFN-a and -b genes are induced directly in response to viral infection, whereas IFN-v, -e, -d and -k play less well-defined roles, such as regulators of maternal recognition in pregnancy. Thus, rather than use the term 'type I IFN', we will use IFN-a/b when referring to the virally induced cytokines. Although the multigenic nature of IFN-a has been known for over 20 years, the significance of this is still debatedi.e. whether these genes are expressed differentially in distinct cell types, whether they are inducible by different types of viruses or whether they are functionally specialized (Brideau-Andersen et al., 2007). For the rest of this review, we will not distinguish between IFN-a subtypes. Type III IFNs have been described more recently and comprise IFNl1, -l2 and -l3, also referred to as IL-2...

The induction of IFN-beta by the paramyxovirus PIV5 (formerly known as SV5) is limited by the action of the viral V protein that targets the cellular RNA helicase mda-5. Here we show that 12 other paramyxoviruses also target mda-5 by a direct interaction between the conserved cysteine-rich C-terminus of their V proteins and the helicase domain of mda-5. The inhibition of IFN-beta induction is not species-restricted, being observed in a range of mammalian cells as well as in avian cells, and we show that the inhibition of mda-5 function is also not restricted to mammalian cells. In contrast, the V proteins do not bind to the related RNA helicase RIG-I and do not inhibit its activity. The relative contributions of mda-5 and RIG-I to IFN-beta induction are discussed.

The interferon (IFN) response is the first line of defense against viral infections, and the majority of viruses have developed different strategies to counteract IFN responses in order to ensure their survival in an infected host. In this study, the abilities to inhibit IFN signaling of two closely related West Nile viruses, the New York 99 strain (NY99) and Kunjin virus (KUN), strain MRM61C, were analyzed using reporter plasmid assays, as well as immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses. We have demonstrated that infections with both NY99 and KUN, as well as transient or stable transfections with their replicon RNAs, inhibited the signaling of both alpha/beta IFN (IFN-␣/␤) and gamma IFN (IFN-␥) by blocking the phosphorylation of STAT1 and its translocation to the nucleus. In addition, the phosphorylation of STAT2 and its translocation to the nucleus were also blocked by KUN, NY99, and their replicons in response to treatment with IFN-␣. IFN-␣ signaling and STAT2 translocation to the nucleus was inhibited when the KUN nonstructural proteins NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, and NS4B, but not NS1 and NS5, were expressed individually from the pcDNA3 vector. The results clearly demonstrate that both NY99 and KUN inhibit IFN signaling by preventing STAT1 and STAT2 phosphorylation and identify nonstructural proteins responsible for this inhibition.The interferons (IFNs) are a large family of multifunctional secreted cytokines involved in antiviral defense, cell growth regulation, and immune activation. IFNs are produced by the majority of cells and include 14 different species of alpha IFN (IFN-␣) and one species of beta IFN (IFN-␤); these IFNs are involved primarily in antiviral and antiproliferative responses (7,16,17,28). Gamma IFN (IFN-␥) is IFN that is usually produced by specific cells of the immune system, including CD8 ϩ T cells, and has potent antiviral and immunomodulating activities (7,16,17,28). The binding of IFNs to corresponding receptors on cell surfaces triggers a cascade of different signaling pathways that eventually lead to the transcriptional activation of a large number of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), which can establish antiviral, antiproliferative, and/or immunoregulatory states in host cells. The best-studied IFN signaling pathways are based on IFN receptor-Janus Kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) activation (7, 16). The binding of IFN-␣ and IFN-␤ to the IFN-␣/␤ receptor, which consists of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 molecules, leads to the activation of JAK1 and Tyk-2 kinases via tyrosine phosphorylation. Activated Tyk-2 phosphorylates IFNAR1, which then serves as a binding site for STAT2. STAT2 is then phosphorylated by Tyk-2 and serves as a binding site for STAT1, which is subsequently phosphorylated by JAK1. The phosphorylated STAT2-STAT1 heterodimers then dissociate from the receptor and associate with p48/IRF-9 to form an ISGF3 complex that translocates to the nucleus, where it initiates the transcription of ISGs via binding to the IFN-stimulated response element (ISRE...

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is a pestivirus that can establish a persistent infection in the developingfetus and has the ability to disable the production of type I interferon. In this report, we extend our previous observations that BVDV encodes a protein able to specifically block the activity of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3), a transcription factor essential for interferon promoter activation, by demonstrating that this is a property of the N-terminal protease fragment (NPro) of the BVDV polyprotein. Although BVDV infections cause relocalization of cellular IRF-3 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus early in infection, NPro blocks IRF-3 from binding to DNA. NPro has the additional property of targeting IRF-3 for polyubiquitination and subsequent destruction by cellular multicatalytic proteasomes. The autoprotease activity of NPro is not required for the inhibition of type I interferon induction or the targeting of IRF-3 for degradation.Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) has a global spread and is a major reproductive pathogen of cattle (12). BVDV, along with classical Swine fever virus (CSFV), Border disease virus of sheep, and a small number of isolates from undomesticated species, make up the genus Pestivirus in the family Flaviviridae. The viruses are positive-strand RNA viruses with a genome on the order of 12.5 kb in length. The RNA is translated into a single viral polyprotein that is processed by both viral and host proteases to either 11 or 12 polypeptides, depending on the virus biotype. BVDV is generally noncytopathogenic (ncp), although the virus associated with the development of mucosal disease in persistently infected animals is a cytopathogenic (cp) biotype. The result of infection of a susceptible host with BVDV is unusual; BVDV can cause an acute infection like other viruses, but infection of a pregnant animal can result in transmission of virus from the dam to the developing fetus, where the virus can replicate. Infection of the fetus prior to immune competence results in a failure of the fetus to control virus infection and can result in the birth of persistently infected offspring that fail to mount an acquired immune response to BVDV. These offspring then serve as a reservoir for further acute virus infection and are held to be critical for BVDV transmission in areas of endemicity.Although infection during fetal development takes place in the absence of a functional acquired immune response, viruses still have to evade innate immunity in order to establish a persistent infection; the ability of ncpBVDV to avoid the induction of interferon (IFN) seems critical in this regard (5). We and others have shown that ncpBVDV encodes an active block to type I IFN induction (3, 46), and there is evidence that ncpBVDV employs more than one mechanism to bring about this block. BVDV-infected cells are refractory to the addition of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to the medium. At least in part, the failure of this extracellular dsRNA to induce type I IFN can be explained by the action of the s...

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In this article we show that the paramyxovirus SV5 is a poor inducer of interferon-beta (IFN-beta). This inefficient induction is a consequence of the expression of an intact viral V protein. In the absence of the viral V protein cysteine-rich C-terminal domain, IFN-beta mRNA is strongly induced and the transcription factors NF-kappaB and IRF-3 are activated significantly. The V protein can work in isolation from SV5 to block intracellular dsRNA signaling. The mechanism of block to dsRNA signaling is distinct from that previously observed for blocking IFN signaling in that proteolysis of candidate factors cannot be detected, and furthermore, the respective blocks require distinct protein domains. Blocking of the induction of IFN-beta by dsRNA requires the C-terminal cysteine-rich domain, a feature that is highly conserved among paramyxoviruses. We demonstrate that the V proteins from other paramyxoviruses have equivalent functions and speculate that limiting the yield of IFN-beta during infection may be a general property of paramyxoviruses.

The V protein of the Paramyxovirus simian virus 5 (SV5) is a multifunctional protein containing an N-terminal 164 residue domain that is shared with the P protein and a distinct C-terminal domain that is cysteine-rich and which is highly conserved among Paramyxoviruses. We report the recovery from Vero cells [interferon (IFN) nonproducing cells] of a recombinant SV5 (rSV5) that lacks the V protein C-terminal specific domain (rSV5VDeltaC). In Vero cells rSV5VDeltaC forms large plaques and grows at a rate and titer similar to those of rSV5. In BHK or CV-1 cells rSV5VDeltaC forms small plaques and grows poorly. However, even when grown in Vero cells rSV5VDeltaC reverts to pseudo-wild-type virus in four to five passages, indicating the importance of the V protein for successful replication of SV5. Whereas rSV5 grows in many cell types with minimal cytopathic effect (CPE), rSV5VDeltaC causes extensive CPE in the same cell types. To overcome the antiviral state induced by IFN, many viruses have evolved mechanisms to counteract the effects of IFN by blocking the production of IFN and abrogating IFN signaling. Whereas rSV5 blocks IFN signaling by mediating the degradation of STAT1, rSV5VDeltaC does not cause the degradation of STAT1 and IFN signaling occurs through formation of the ISGF3 transcription complex. Furthermore, we find that rSV5 infection of cells prevents production of IFN-beta. The transcription factor IRF-3 which is required for transcription of the IFN-beta gene is not translocated from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in rSV5-infected cells. In contrast, in rSV5VDeltaC-infected cells IRF-3 is localized predominantly in the nucleus and IFN-beta is produced. By using ectopic expression of IRF-3, it was shown that after dsRNA treatment and expression of the V protein IRF-3 remained in the cytoplasm, whereas after dsRNA treatment and expression of the P protein (which lacks the C-terminal cysteine-rich domain) IRF-3 was localized predominantly in the nucleus. Thus, SV5 blocks two distinct pathways of the innate immune response, both of which require the presence of the C-terminal specific cysteine-rich domain of the multifunctional SV5 V protein.

SUMMARYHybridomas secreting monoclonal antibodies to simian virus 5 (SV5) were obtained following immunization of mice with purified preparations of a human isolate (LN) of SV5. Immune precipitation studies showed that these monoclonal antibodies had specificities for the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN), fusion (F), nucleo-, matrix and phospho-(P) proteins of SV5. By use of a radioimmune competition assay the monoclonal antibodies to the HN protein were assigned to four groups, members of which recognized different antigenic sites on the protein. All the anti-HN antibodies and the anti-F antibody neutralized virus infectivity. The 54 monoclonal antibodies obtained were used to determine whether there were antigenic differences between five human, two canine and one simian isolate of SV5. Although most of the monoclonal antibodies reacted with all isolates, a few did reveal antigenic differences in the HN, F and P proteins. Furthermore, analysis by SDS-PAGE showed that while the electrophoretic mobilities of most of the virus polypeptides of these isolates were similar some differences could be detected. In particular the P protein showed the most marked mobility differences between the human, canine and simian isolates. Slight differences in the mobility of the F1 glycoprotein could also be visualized.