PKACs attenuate innate antiviral response by phosphorylating VISA and priming it for MARCH5-mediated degradation

PLoS Pathog. 2017 Sep 21;13(9):e1006648. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006648. eCollection 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Sensing of viral RNA by RIG-I-like receptors initiates innate antiviral response, which is mediated by the central adaptor VISA. How the RIG-I-VISA-mediated antiviral response is terminated at the late phase of infection is enigmatic. Here we identified the protein kinase A catalytic (PKAC) subunits α and β as negative regulators of RNA virus-triggered signaling in a redundant manner. Viral infection up-regulated cellular cAMP levels and activated PKACs, which then phosphorylated VISA at T54. This phosphorylation abrogated virus-induced aggregation of VISA and primed it for K48-linked polyubiquitination and degradation by the E3 ligase MARCH5, leading to attenuation of virus-triggered induction of downstream antiviral genes. PKACs-deficiency or inactivation by the inhibitor H89 potentiated innate immunity to RNA viruses in cells and mice. Our findings reveal a critical mechanism of attenuating innate immune response to avoid host damage at the late phase of viral infection by the house-keeping PKA kinase.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / immunology*
  • Animals
  • Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinase Catalytic Subunits / immunology*
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Immunity, Innate / immunology*
  • Immunoblotting
  • Immunoprecipitation
  • Membrane Proteins / immunology*
  • Mice
  • Phosphorylation
  • Respirovirus Infections / immunology*
  • Sendai virus
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / immunology*

Substances

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing
  • MAVS protein, human
  • Membrane Proteins
  • MARCHF5 protein, human
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
  • Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinase Catalytic Subunits

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0505800, 2016YFA0502102), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31630045, 31521091, and 91429304). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.