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Journal of Virology, April 1999, p. 3117-3124, Vol. 73, No. 4
Department of Pathology, School of Medicine,
University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
212011; Department of Molecular
Genetics and Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of
Florida, Gainesville, Florida 326102; and
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta,
Georgia 303333
Received 2 October 1998/Accepted 4 January 1999
Interferons and chemokines play a critical role in regulating the
host response to viral infection. Measles virus, a member of the
Paramyxoviridae family, induces RANTES expression by
astrocytes. We have examined the mechanism of this induction in U373
cells derived from a human astrocytoma. RANTES was induced in a dose- and time-dependent manner by measles virus infection. Inhibition of
receptor binding by the anti-CD46 antibody TRA-2.10 and of virus-membrane fusion by the tripeptide X-Phe-Phe-Gly reduced RANTES
expression. Formalin-inactivated virus, which can bind but not fuse,
and extensively UV-irradiated virus, which can bind and fuse, were both
ineffective. Therefore, virus binding to the cellular receptor CD46 and
subsequent membrane fusion were necessary, but not sufficient, to
induce RANTES. UV irradiation of virus for less than 10 min
proportionally inhibited viral transcription and RANTES expression.
RANTES induction was decreased in infected cells treated
with ribavirin, which inhibits measles virus transcription. However,
RANTES mRNA was superinduced by measles virus in the presence of
cycloheximide. These data suggest that partial transcription of the
viral genome is sufficient and necessary for RANTES induction, whereas
viral protein synthesis and replication are not required. This
hypothesis was supported by the fact that RANTES was induced through
transient expression of the measles virus nucleocapsid gene but not by
measles genes encoding P or L proteins or by leader RNA in A549 cells.
Thus, transcription of specific portions of measles virus RNA, such
as the nucleocapsid gene, appears able to generate the
specific signaling required to induce RANTES gene expression.
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Requirements for Measles Virus Induction of RANTES Chemokine
in Human Astrocytoma-Derived U373 Cells

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, 10 S. Pine St., Baltimore, MD 21201. Phone: (410) 706-7892. Fax: (410) 706-7706. E-mail: mshin{at}umaryland.edu.
Present address: Dept. of Cardiology/Membrane Physiology,
Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021.
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