UC San Diego

Human cells are capable of containing a virus infection through several different mechanisms. Most of these antiviral responses are mediated by the cellular secretion of chemicals called interferons which are secreted in response to the presence of the virus in the host cell. In this study, we created an overexpression cell line of various cellular double stranded RNA (dsRNA) viral sensors such as TLR3, RIG-I, PKR, PRKRA, and Fas and used time lapse microscopy to investigate the changes in the spread of the viral infection in the host cell. We found that an overexpression of TLR3, PKR, PRKRA, and Fas in Hela cells show no significant changes in Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) containment upon infection. However, there is a significant decrease in the spread of VSV upon infection when RIG-I is overexpressed in HeLa cells. This reveals the importance of RIG-I in the interferon induced antiviral response against VSV and also demonstrates that not all dsRNA viral sensors are important in triggering the same response. Future research on these sensors can provide us greater insight on how we can manipulate the host induced interferon antiviral response for efficient containment of the virus upon infection.