A guinea pig IFNA1 gene with antiviral activity against human influenza virus infection

• Published in: Frontiers in bioscience (Landmark. Print) Vol. 24; no. 4; p. 790
• Main Authors: Jiang, Shiwen, Sakamoto, Ryou, Kimura, Tominori
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore 01.03.2019
• Subjects: Animals; Cell Line; Computational Biology; Dogs; Guinea Pigs; Humans; Immunity, Innate; Influenza Vaccines; Influenza, Human - immunology; Influenza, Human - therapy; Interferon-alpha - genetics; Interferon-alpha - metabolism; Madin Darby Canine Kidney Cells; Marmota; Mice; Oligonucleotides, Antisense - genetics; Orthomyxoviridae; Orthomyxoviridae Infections - immunology; Orthomyxoviridae Infections - therapy; Plasmids - metabolism; RNA, Antisense - genetics
• ISSN: 2768-6698
• DOI: 10.2741/4751

We previously reported a natural antisense (AS) RNA as an important modulator of human interferon-Alpha1 ( ) mRNA levels. Here, we identified the guinea pig ( ) gene to enable a proof-of-concept experiment to be performed to confirm that the AS-mRNA regulatory axis exerts control over innate immunity. We selected a guinea pig model system for influenza virus infection because encode a functional gene, an important anti-viral effector in the type I interferon pathway. We identified 15 gene candidates upon bioinformatic analysis and selected the three candidates with the highest sequence homology to , and . The anti-viral activity of guinea pig IFN-Alpha1 protein against A/Puerto Rico/8/34- or endomyocarditis virus-infection was then determined for the three gene candidates. We identified as the candidate with the highest sequence homologies and best anti-viral effects. will enable us to perform a proof-of-concept experiment to verify that IFN-Alpha1 AS increases mRNA levels, resulting in inhibition of influenza virus proliferation .