Differential Immune Response of Influenza a Virus-Infected Dendritic Cells and Association With Autophagy

Abstract

Aim: We sought to study the responses of dendritic cells (DCs) after direct stimulation by different influenza A viruses. Materials & methods: Using bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) as a model, we measured the expression of surface markers, cytokine production and the priming effect on CD4⁺ naive T cells. Results & conclusion: We found that all of the tested viruses induced BMDC maturation. Cytokine expression assays also demonstrated that activated BMDCs secrete higher levels of cytokines. Similar to the maturation degree, well-stimulated BMDCs induced higher levels of naive CD4⁺ T-cell activation. Furthermore, we found that the PR8 and WSN influenza A viruse-induced BMDC functional activation was at least partially influenced by autophagy.

Keywords: :

• autophagy
• bone marrow-derived DC activation
• CD4⁺ T cells
• cytokine production
• dendritic cells
• immune response
• infectious diseases
• influenza A virus
• RNA-seq analysis

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/fvl-2017-0044

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFD0500206, 2016YFC1200803), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; grant no. 31572526, 31402216, 31630079), the Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science (Y4ZK111B01). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The mouse experimental design and protocols used in this study were approved by “the regulation of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences of Research Ethics Committee” (permit number: PZIMCAS2015001). All mouse experimental procedures were performed in accordance with the Regulations for the Administration of Affairs Concerning Experimental Animals approved by the State Council of People’s Republic of China.