Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Virology, July 2007, p. 7189-7199, Vol. 81, No. 13
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00013-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104,1 Department of Microbiology,2 Emerging Pathogens Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 100293
Received 3 January 2007/ Accepted 12 April 2007
Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) was used as a model to study the interaction of coronaviruses with the alpha/beta interferon (IFN-
/ß) response. While MHV strain A59 appeared to induce IFN-ß gene transcription and low levels of nuclear translocation of the IFN-ß transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3), MHV did not induce IFN-ß protein production during the course of infection in L2 mouse fibroblast cells. In addition, MHV was able to significantly decrease the level of IFN-ß protein induced by both Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and Sendai virus infections, without targeting it for proteasomal degradation and without altering the nuclear translocation of IRF-3 or IFN-ß mRNA production or stability. These results indicate that MHV infection causes an inhibition of IFN-ß production at a posttranscriptional level, without altering RNA or protein stability. In contrast, MHV induced IFN-ß mRNA and protein production in the brains of infected animals, suggesting that the inhibitory mechanisms observed in vitro are not enough to prevent IFN-
/ß production in vivo. Furthermore, MHV replication is highly resistant to IFN-
/ß action, as indicated by unimpaired MHV replication in L2 cells pretreated with IFN-ß. However, when L2 cells were coinfected with MHV and NDV in the presence of IFN-ß, NDV, but not MHV, replication was inhibited. Thus, rather than disarming the antiviral activity induced by IFN-ß pretreatment completely, MHV may be inherently resistant to some aspects of the antiviral state induced by IFN-ß. These findings show that MHV employs unique strategies to circumvent the IFN-
/ß response at multiple steps.
Published ahead of print on 25 April 2007.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»