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The toll-like receptor (TLR)-7 has been shown to sense the retroviral infection. However, a surrogate sensor has been implicated. We examined whether retrovirus serves as a TLR3 ligand in human cells by utilizing cell lines LNCaP and PC-3 lacking TLR7, and the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-relamoted virus (XMRV) insensitive to human tripartite motif-containing (TRIM) 5, a newly characterized pattern recognition receptor (PRR). A dominant-negative TLR3 or a chemical inhibitor of TLR3 attenuated the XMRV-induced IP-10/CXCL10 expression, a marker of TLR3 response. These data clearly indicated that retroviral infection exemplified by XMRV activates the TLR3 signal in human cells., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors have been successfully used in hepatic gene transfer for treatment of hemophilia and other diseases in animals, adaptive immune responses blocked long-term transgene expression in patients on administration of single-stranded AAV serotype-2 vector. More efficient vectors have been developed using alternate capsids and self-complimentary (sc) genomes. This study investigated their effects on the innate immune profile on hepatic gene transfer to mice. A mild and transient up-regulation of myeloid differentiation primary response gene (88), TLR9, TNF-α, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, IFN-γ inducible protein-10, and IFN-α/β expression in the liver was found after single-stranded AAV vector administration, regardless of the capsid sequence. In contrast, scAAV vectors induced higher increases of these transcripts, upregulated additional proinflammatory genes, and increased circulating IL-6. Neutrophil, macrophage, and natural killer cell liver infiltrates were substantially higher on injection of scAAV. Some but not all of these responses were Kupffer cell dependent. Independent of the capsid or expression cassette, scAAV vectors induced dose-dependent innate responses by signaling through TLR9. Increased innate responses to scAAV correlated with stronger adaptive immune responses against capsid (but not against the transgene product). However, these could be blunted by transient inhibition of TLR9.

Somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination in germinal centers critically depend on activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Deregulation of AID may lead to the aberrant activation or persistence of both genetic processes, thus contributing to the pathogenesis of B-cell lymphomas by mistargeted mutagenesis or recombination. The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) establishes an asymptomatic latent infection in more than 90% of the human population, but it has also been linked to lymphomagenesis. A cooperative relationship of EBV and the germinal center reaction during the establishment of viral persistence has been postulated, but the contribution of EBV latent genes to the respective genetic events remains to be investigated in detail. In the present study, we show that activation of the EBV growth program has a clear inhibitory effect on AID expression, due to a negative effect of the master transcription factor of this program, EBNA2. This mechanism may counterbalance AID induction by the LMP1 protein, in order to prevent deleterious genetic changes during EBV-induced B-cell growth. EBNA2-mediated AID inhibition also provides a molecular explanation for the previously observed differences in somatic hypermutation activity in EBV-associated lymphoproliferative diseases, thus pointing to a crucial mechanism of EBV-mediated regulation of genomic integrity.