The cytoplasmic tail of the rabies virus G protein is an essential domain controlling death/survival in human neuronal cells

Poster presentation

Toll-Like Receptor 3 (TLR3) Plays a Major Role in the Formation of Rabies Virus Negri Bodies

Human neurons express the innate immune response receptor, Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3). TLR3 levels are increased in pathological conditions such as brain virus infection. Here, we further investigated the production, cellular localisation, and function of neuronal TLR3 during neuronotropic rabies virus (RABV) infection in human neuronal cells. Following RABV infection, TLR3 is not only present in endosomes, as observed in the absence of infection, but also in detergent-resistant perinuclear inclusion bodies. As well as TLR3, these inclusion bodies contain the viral genome and viral proteins (N and P, but not G). The size and composition of inclusion bodies and the absence of a surrounding membrane, as shown by electron microscopy, suggest they correspond to the previously described Negri Bodies (NBs). NBs are not formed in the absence of TLR3, and TLR3−/− mice—in which brain tissue was less severely infected—had a better survival rate than WT mice. These observations demonstrate that TLR3 is a major molecule involved in the spatial arrangement of RABV–induced NBs and viral replication. This study shows how viruses can exploit cellular proteins and compartmentalisation for their own benefit

Virus Infection Switches TLR-3-Positive Human Neurons To Become Strong Producers of Beta Interferon

To study the capacity of human neurons to mount innate immunity responses to viral infections, we infected cells of a human postmitotic neuron-derivative cell line, NT2-N, with rabies virus (RABV) and herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1). Changes in neuronal gene expression were analyzed by use of Affymetrix microarrays. Applying a twofold cutoff, RABV increased the transcription of 228 genes, and HSV-1 increased the transcription of 263 genes. The most striking difference between the two infections concerns genes involved in immunity. These genes represent 24% of the RABV-upregulated genes and only 4.9% of the HSV-1-upregulated genes. Following RABV infection, the most upregulated genes belong to the immunity cluster and included almost exclusively genes for beta interferon (IFN-β) primary and secondary responses as well as genes for chemokines (CCL-5, CXCL-10) and inflammatory cytokines (interleukin 6 [IL-6], tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1 alpha). In contrast, HSV-1 infection did not increase IFN-β gene transcripts and triggered the production of only IL-6 and interferon regulatory factor 1 mRNAs. The microarray results were confirmed by real-time PCR, immunocytochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Human neurons were found to express Toll-like receptor 3. They produced IFN-β after treatment with poly(I:C) but not with lipopolysaccharide. Thus, human neurons can mount an innate immunity response to double-stranded RNA. These observations firmly establish that human neurons, in absence of glia, have the intrinsic machinery to sense virus infection

The Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule Is a Receptor for Rabies Virus

Previous reports strongly suggest that, in addition to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, rabies virus can use other, as-yet-unidentified receptors. We found that laboratory cell lines susceptible to rabies virus infection express the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) (CD56) on their surface, whereas resistant cells do not, supporting the idea that NCAM could be a rabies virus receptor. We observed that (i) incubation with rabies virus decreases the surface expression of NCAM; (ii) treatment of susceptible cells with heparan sulfate, a ligand for NCAM, or with NCAM antibodies significantly reduces the rabies virus infection; and (iii) preincubation of rabies virus inoculum with soluble NCAM protein as a receptor decoy drastically neutralizes the capacity of rabies virus to infect susceptible cells. Moreover, we demonstrated that transfection of resistant L fibroblasts with the NCAM-encoding gene induces rabies virus susceptibility whereas absence of NCAM in the primary cortical cell cultures prepared from NCAM-deficient mice reduces the rabies virus infection and virus production. This provides evidence that NCAM is an in vitro receptor for the rabies virus. Moreover, the in vivo relevance for the use of NCAM as a receptor was demonstrated by the infection of NCAM-deficient mice, in which rabies mortality was delayed and brain invasion by rabies virus was drastically restricted. Our results showed that NCAM, which is expressed mainly in the adult nervous system, plays an important role in rabies infection. However, it cannot be excluded that receptors other than NCAM are utilized. Thus, the description of NCAM as a new rabies virus receptor would be another example of the use by viruses of more than one receptor to gain entry into the host

Apoptosis inversely correlates with rabies virus neurotropism.

We report that non-neurotropic rabies virus (RV) strains, currently used to immunize wildlife against rabies, induces not only a caspase-dependent apoptosis in the human lymphoblastoid Jurkat T cell line (Jurkat-vect), but also a caspase-independent pathway. Cell redistribution of the apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) was observed in Jurkat-vect infected with RV vaccine strain. Bcl-2 overproduction in Jurkat T cells (Jurkat-Bcl-2) abolished both caspase activation and AIF distribution. In contrast, strain of neurotropic RV did not induce apoptosis. The inverse correlation of the induction of apoptosis and the capacity of a virus strain to invade the brain suggests that blockage of apoptosis could be a strategy selected by neurotropic virus to favor its progression through the nervous system