The E248R protein of African swine fever virus inhibits the cGAS-STING-mediated innate immunity.

Yinguang Liu; Wenping Yang; Yuan Wen; Qingli Niu; Jifei Yang; Guiquan Guan; Hong Yin; Haixue Zheng; Dan LI; Zhijie Liu

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The E248R protein of African swine fever virus inhibits the cGAS-STING-mediated innate immunity.

Author: Yinguang LIU ¹ ; Wenping YANG ¹ ; Yuan WEN ¹ ; Qingli NIU ¹ ; Jifei YANG ¹ ; Guiquan GUAN ¹ ; Hong YIN ¹ ; Haixue ZHENG ¹ ; Dan LI ¹ ; Zhijie LIU ¹
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1. State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology/African Swine Fever Regional Laboratory of China (Lanzhou)/Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, Gansu, China.
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: African swine fever virus; E248R protein; cGAS-STING signaling pathway; innate immunity
MeSH: African Swine Fever Virus/genetics*; Animals; DNA; Immunity, Innate; Nucleotidyltransferases/metabolism*; Signal Transduction; Swine
From: Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2022;38(5):1837-1846
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: We researched the mechanism of African swine fever virus (ASFV) protein E248R in regulating the cGAS-STING pathway. First, we verified via the dual-luciferase reporter assay system that E248R protein inhibited the secretion of IFN-β induced by cGAS-STING or HT-DNA in a dose-dependent manner. The relative quantitative PCR analysis indicated that the overexpression of E248R inhibited HT-DNA-induced transcription of IFN-b1, RANTES, IL-6, and TNF-α in PK-15 cells. Next, we found that E248R interacted with STING by co-immunoprecipitation assay and laser confocal microscopy. Finally, we demonstrated that E248R inhibited the expression of STING protein by using Western blotting. We demonstrated for the first time that the E248R protein of ASFV suppressed the host innate immune response via inhibiting STING expression. The results are pivotal in extending the understanding of the ASFV immune escape and can guide the design of vaccines against ASFV.