Chinese Medical Sciences Journaldoi: 10.24920/004393

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Polypyrimidine Tract-Binding Protein Enhances Zika Virus Translation by Binding to the 5' UTR of Internal Ribosomal Entry Site

Moliduer Hamiti1, Xin-Tian Zhang2, Rui-Min Zhu3, 4, Yun-Peng Liu3, 4, Bin Yin1, Peng-Cheng Shu1, Xiao-Zhong Peng1, 3, 4   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Common Mechanism Research for Major Diseases, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Medical Primate Research Center, Neuroscience Center, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China;
    2Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Kunming 650031, China;
    3State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China;
    4Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
  • Received:2024-06-28 Accepted:2024-08-13 Online:2024-09-25
  • Contact: * E-mail: 15299037756@163.com

Objectives To identify the 5' untranslated region of Zika virus (ZIKV5'UTR) RNA-binding proteins and to investigate the impact of the binding protein on the activity of internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) located in ZIKV5'UTR and virus production.
Methods Interacting proteins in U251 cells were captured using tRSA-tagged ZIKV 5'UTR RNA and tRSA-ZIKV 5'UTR RNA-binding proteins were visualized by SDS-PAGE silver staining. Subsequently, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), bioinformatics analysis, and western blot were used to identify the candidate proteins binding to ZIKV5'UTR. Dicistronic expression assay and plaque forming assay were performed to analyze the effect of the binding protein on ZIKV IRES activity and ZIKV production.
Results tRSA RNA pull-down assay, LC-MS/MS, and western blot analysis showed that polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB) bound to the ZIKV 5'UTR Furthermore, dual luciferase reporter assay revealed that overexpression of PTB significantly enhanced the IRES activity of ZIKV (t = 10.220, P < 0.001), while PTB knockdown had the opposite effect (t = 4.897, P < 0.01). Additionally, virus plaque forming assay demonstrated that up-regulation of PTB expression significantly enhanced viral titer (t = 6.400, P < 0.01), whereas reducing PTB expression level weakened virus infectivity (t = 5.055, P < 0.01).
Conclusion PTB positively interacts with the ZIKV 5'UTR and enhances IRES activity and virus production.

Key words: internal ribosomal entry site, polypyrimidine tract-binding protein, Zika virus, tRSA RNA pull-down, dual-luciferase reporter assay

Funding: Innovative Research Group Foundation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82221004).

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