Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) is associated with neonatal microcephaly and Guillain–Barré syndrome1,2. While progress has been made in understanding the causal link between ZIKV infection and microcephaly3,4,5,6,7,8,9, the life cycle and pathogenesis of ZIKV are less well understood. In particular, there are conflicting reports on the role of AXL, a TAM family kinase receptor that was initially described as the entry receptor for ZIKV10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22. Here, we show that while genetic ablation of AXL protected primary human astrocytes and astrocytoma cell lines from ZIKV infection, AXL knockout did not block the entry of ZIKV. We found, instead, that the presence of AXL attenuated the ZIKV-induced activation of type I interferon (IFN) signalling genes, including several type I IFNs and IFN-stimulating genes. Knocking out type I IFN receptor α chain (IFNAR1) restored the vulnerability of AXL knockout astrocytes to ZIKV infection. Further experiments suggested that AXL regulates the expression of SOCS1, a known type I IFN signalling suppressor, in a STAT1/STAT2-dependent manner. Collectively, our results demonstrate that AXL is unlikely to function as an entry receptor for ZIKV and may instead promote ZIKV infection in human astrocytes by antagonizing type I IFN signalling.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (81430030 to J.X.), the ShanghaiTech University Startup Fund (to B.J. and J.L.), the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (to X.Z.), the Developmental Center of Shanghai Shenkang Hospital (SHDC12014104 to X.Z.) and the Shanghai Advanced Biosafety and Pathogen Diagnostic Platform (15DZ2290200 to X.Z.).
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J.X. and J.L. conceived this study. Jian C., Y.-F.Y., B.J., X.Z., J.L. and J.X. designed the experiments. Jian C., Y.-F.Y., Y.Y., Yongquan H., S.-L.S., Y.-R.C., R.B., Y.-J.L. and J.L. performed the experiments. P.Z., Yunwen H. and L.L. prepared the ZIKV. Jun C. analysed the RNA-Seq data. Jian C., Y.-F.Y., J.L. and J.X. prepared the manuscript.
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Chen, J., Yang, Yf., Yang, Y. et al. AXL promotes Zika virus infection in astrocytes by antagonizing type I interferon signalling. Nat Microbiol 3, 302–309 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0092-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0092-4
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