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Rubella virus perturbs autophagy

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Abstract

Autophagy is a cellular catabolic process implicated in numerous physiological processes and pathological conditions, including infections. Viruses have evolved different strategies to modulate the autophagic process. Since the effects of rubella virus (RV) on autophagy have not yet been reported, we evaluated the autophagic activity in the Statens Seruminstitut Rabbit Cornea cell line infected with the To336 strain of RV. Our results showed that RV lowered the levels of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 B-II (LC3B-II) and the autophagy-related gene 12–autophagy-related gene 5 conjugate, inhibited the autophagic flux, suppressed the intracellular redistribution of LC3B, decreased both the average number and the size of autophagosomes per cell and impeded the formation of acidic vesicular organelles. Induction of autophagy by using rapamycin decreased both the viral yields and the apoptotic rates of infected cultures. Besides its cytoprotective effects, autophagy furnishes an important antiviral mechanism, inhibition of which may reorchestrate intracellular environment so as to better serve the unique requirements of RV replication. Together, our observations suggest that RV utilizes a totally different strategy to cope with autophagy than that evolved by other positive-stranded RNA viruses, and there is considerable heterogeneity among the members of the Togaviridae family in terms of their effects on the cellular autophagic cascade.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Gyöngyi Ábrahám for expert technical assistance. This work was supported by the TÁMOP-4.2.2/B-10/1-2010-0012 and TÁMOP4.2.2.A-11/1/KONV-2012-0035 programs of the Hungarian National Development Agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunobiology, University of Szeged, Dóm tér 10, Szeged, 6720, Hungary

    Kata Pásztor, László Orosz & Klára Megyeri

  2. Department of Medical Biology, University of Szeged, Somogyi Béla u. 4, Szeged, Hungary

    György Seprényi

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  1. Kata Pásztor
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  2. László Orosz
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  3. György Seprényi
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  4. Klára Megyeri
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Correspondence to Klára Megyeri.

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Pásztor, K., Orosz, L., Seprényi, G. et al. Rubella virus perturbs autophagy. Med Microbiol Immunol 203, 323–331 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-014-0340-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-014-0340-7

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