scholarly journals Alpha interferon inhibits translation mediated by the internal ribosome entry site of six different hepatitis C virus genotypes

2005 ◽  
Vol 86 (11) ◽  
pp. 3047-3053 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidhartha Hazari ◽  
Asha Patil ◽  
Virendra Joshi ◽  
Deborah E. Sullivan ◽  
Cesar D. Fermin ◽  
...  

Certain genotypes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) respond less often than others to treatment with interferon (IFN). The mechanisms for this differential response are not known. In this report antiviral effects of IFN-α2b on translation were examined in a hepatic cell line using chimeric clones of internal ribosome entry site (IRES) sequences from six different HCV genotypes and the green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene. As a control, IFN action at the level of the IRES was examined in the presence of different cytokines. It was determined that IFN-α2b specifically inhibited the translation of GFP mediated by IRES sequences from six major HCV genotypes in a concentration-dependent manner. Other cytokines including tumour necrosis factor alpha, transforming growth factor beta 1, interleukin 1 and interleukin 6 have no inhibitory effect. The inhibition of translation in these experiments was not due to extensive intracellular degradation of IRES-GFP mRNA. These results suggest that the antiviral action of IFN-α2b blocks IRES-mediated translation and this effect is the same among HCVs of other genotypes.

2006 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
pp. 3251-3262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. MacCallum ◽  
Samantha C. Jack ◽  
Philip A. Egan ◽  
Benjamin T. McDermott ◽  
Richard M. Elliott ◽  
...  

Chronic hepatitis C is often associated with oxidative stress. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) utilizes an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) element for translation, in contrast to cap-dependent translation of the majority of cellular proteins. To understand how virus translation is modulated under oxidative stress, HCV IRES-mediated translation was compared with cap-dependent translation using a bicistronic reporter construct and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as a stress inducer. In H2O2-sensitive HeLa cells, H2O2 repressed translation in a time- and dose-dependent manner, concomitant with the kinetics of eIF2α phosphorylation. A phosphomimetic of eIF2α, which mimics the structure of the phosphorylated eIF2α, was sufficient to repress translation in the absence of H2O2. In H2O2-resistant HepG2 cells, H2O2 activated both HCV IRES-mediated and cap-dependent translation, associated with an increased level of phospho-eIF2α. It was postulated that H2O2 might stimulate translation in HepG2 cells via an eIF2α-independent mechanism, whereas the simultaneous phosphorylation of eIF2α repressed part of the translational activities. Indeed, the translational repression was released in the presence of a non-phosphorylatable mutant, eIF2α-SA, resulting in further enhancement of both translational activities after exposure to H2O2. In HuH7 cells, which exhibited an intermediate level of sensitivity towards H2O2, both HCV IRES-mediated and cap-dependent translational activities were upregulated after treatment with various doses of H2O2, but the highest level of induction was achieved with a low level of H2O2, which may represent the physiological level of H2O2. At this level, the HCV IRES-mediated translation was preferentially upregulated compared with cap-dependent translation.


ChemBioChem ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1364-1367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maia Carnevali ◽  
Jerod Parsons ◽  
David L. Wyles ◽  
Thomas Hermann

2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (21) ◽  
pp. 12075-12081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongsheng Li ◽  
William B. Lott ◽  
John Martyn ◽  
Gholamreza Haqshenas ◽  
Eric J. Gowans

ABSTRACT To investigate the role of the hepatitis C virus internal ribosome entry site (HCV IRES) domain IV in translation initiation and regulation, two chimeric IRES elements were constructed to contain the reciprocal domain IV in the otherwise HCV and classical swine fever virus IRES elements. This permitted an examination of the role of domain IV in the control of HCV translation. A specific inhibitor of the HCV IRES, vitamin B12, was shown to inhibit translation directed by all IRES elements which contained domain IV from the HCV and the GB virus B IRES elements, whereas the HCV core protein could only suppress translation from the wild-type HCV IRES. Thus, the mechanisms of translation inhibition by vitamin B12 and the core protein differ, and they target different regions of the IRES.


2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (15) ◽  
pp. 6861-6870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Costa-Mattioli ◽  
Yuri Svitkin ◽  
Nahum Sonenberg

ABSTRACT Translation of poliovirus and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNAs is initiated by recruitment of 40S ribosomes to an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in the mRNA 5′ untranslated region. Translation initiation of these RNAs is stimulated by noncanonical initiation factors called IRES trans-activating factors (ITAFs). The La autoantigen is such an ITAF, but functional evidence for the role of La in poliovirus and HCV translation in vivo is lacking. Here, by two methods using small interfering RNA and a dominant-negative mutant of La, we demonstrate that depletion of La causes a dramatic reduction in poliovirus IRES function in vivo. We also show that 40S ribosomal subunit binding to HCV and poliovirus IRESs in vitro is inhibited by a dominant-negative form of La. These results provide strong evidence for a function of the La autoantigen in IRES-dependent translation and define the step of translation which is stimulated by La.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (15) ◽  
pp. 7024-7031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hervé Lerat ◽  
Yoko K. Shimizu ◽  
Stanley M. Lemon

ABSTRACT Low-level replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in cultured lymphoblastoid cells inoculated with H77 serum inoculum led to the appearance of new virus variants containing identical substitutions at three sites within the viral 5′ nontranslated RNA (5′NTR): G107→A, C204→A, and G243→A (N. Nakajima, M. Hijikata, H. Yoshikura, and Y. K. Shimizu, J. Virol. 70:3325–3329, 1996). These results suggest that virus with this 5′NTR sequence may have a greater capacity for replication in such cells, possibly due to more efficient cap-independent translation, since these nucleotide substitutions reside within the viral internal ribosome entry site (IRES). To test this hypothesis, we examined the translation of dicistronic RNAs containing upstream and downstream reporter sequences (Renilla and firefly luciferases, respectively) separated by IRES sequences containing different combinations of these substitutions. The activity of the IRES was assessed by determining the relative firefly and Renillaluciferase activities expressed in transfected cells. Compared with the IRES present in the dominant H77 quasispecies, an IRES containing all three nucleotide substitutions had significantly greater translational activity in three of five human lymphoblastoid cell lines (Raji, Bjab, and Molt4 but not Jurkat or HPBMa10-2 cells). In contrast, these substitutions did not enhance IRES activity in cell lines derived from monocytes or granulocytes (HL-60, KG-1, or THP-1) or hepatocytes (Huh-7) or in cell-free translation assays carried out with rabbit reticulocyte lysates. Each of the three substitutions was required for maximally increased translational activity in the lymphoblastoid cells. The 2- to 2.5-fold increase in translation observed with the modified IRES sequence may facilitate the replication of HCV, possibly accounting for differences in quasispecies variants recovered from liver tissue and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the same patient.


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