Publikationsdatenbank

Equine herpesvirus type 4 UL56 and UL49.5 proteins downregulate cell surface major histocompatibility complex class I expression independently of each other (2012)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Said, Abdelrahman (WE 5)

Azab, Walid (WE 5)

Damiani, Armando (WE 5)

Osterrieder, Nikolaus (WE 5)

Quelle

Journal of virology; 86(15) — S. 8059–8071

ISSN: 0022-538x

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00891-12

Pubmed: 22623773

Kontakt

Institut für Virologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
Gebäude 35
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51833
viro@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecules are critically important in the host defense against various pathogens through presentation of viral peptides to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), a process resulting in the destruction of virus-infected cells. Herpesviruses interfere with CTL-mediated elimination of infected cells by various mechanisms, including inhibition of peptide transport and loading, perturbation of MHC-I trafficking, and rerouting and proteolysis of cell surface MHC-I. In this study, we show that equine herpesvirus type 4 (EHV-4) modulates MHC-I cell surface expression through two different mechanisms. First, EHV-4 can lead to a significant downregulation of MHC-I expression at the cell surface through the product of ORF1, a protein expressed with early kinetics from a gene that is homologous to herpes simplex virus 1 UL56. The EHV-4 UL56 protein reduces cell surface MHC-I as early as 4 h after infection. Second, EHV-4 can interfere with MHC-I antigen presentation, starting at 6 h after infection, by inhibition of the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) through its UL49.5 protein. Although pUL49.5 has no immediate effect on overall surface MHC-I levels in infected cells, it blocks the supply of antigenic peptides to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and transport of peptide-loaded MHC-I to the cell surface. Taken together, our results show that EHV-4 encodes at least two viral immune evasion proteins: pUL56 reduces MHC-I molecules on the cell surface at early times after infection, and pUL49.5 interferes with MHC-I antigen presentation by blocking peptide transport in the ER.