Xiaoqiu Wang, Wenxin Wu, Wei Zhang, J. Leland Booth, Elizabeth S. Duggan, Lili Tian, Sunil More, Yan D. Zhao, Ravindranauth N. Sawh, Lin Liu, Ming-Hui Zou, Jordan P. Metcalf
Abstract
Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) is an important regulator of virus-induced antiviral interferons (IFNs) and proinflammatory cytokines which participate in clearing viral infections. Cigarette smoke (CS) exposure increases the frequency and severity of respiratory tract infections.
We generated a RIG-I transgenic (TG) mouse strain that expresses the RIG-I gene product under the control of the human lung specific surfactant protein C promoter. We compared the mortality and host immune responses of RIG-I TG mice and their litter-matched wild type (WT) mice following challenge with influenza A virus (IAV).
RIG-I overexpression increased survival of IAV-infected mice. CS exposure increased mortality in WT mice infected with IAV. Remarkably, the effect of RIG-I overexpression on survival during IAV infection was enhanced in CS-exposed animals. CS-exposed IAV-infected WT mice had a suppressed innate response profile in the lung compared to sham-exposed IAV-infected WT mice in terms of the protein concentration, total cell count and inflammatory cell composition in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. RIG-I overexpression restored the innate immune response in CS-exposed mice to that seen in sham-exposed WT mice during IAV infection, and is likely responsible for enhanced survival in RIG-I TG mice as restoration preceded death of the animals.
Our results demonstrate that RIG-I overexpression in mice is protective for CS enhanced susceptibility of smokers to influenza infection, and that CS mediated RIG-I suppression may be partially responsible for the increased morbidity and mortality of the mice exposed to IAV. Thus, optimizing the RIG-I response may be an important treatment strategy for CS-enhanced lung infections, particularly those due to IAV.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 November 2017.
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#15,745,807
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