ABSTRACT
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) rapidly produce large amounts of type 1 interferon (IFN) after Toll-like receptor 7 and 9 engagements. This specialized function of type 1 IFN production is directly linked to the constitutive expression of IRF7, the master transcription factor for type 1 IFN production. However, the IRF7 regulatory network in pDCs remains largely unknown. In this study, we identify that the transcription factor NFATC3 specifically binds to IRF7 and enhances IRF7-mediated IFN production. Furthermore, knockout of NFATC3 greatly reduced the CpG DNA-induced nuclear translocation of IRF7, which resulted in impaired type 1 IFN production in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we found that NFATC3 and IRF7 both bound to type 1 IFN promoters and that the NFAT binding site in IFN promoters was required for IRF7-mediated IFN expression. Collectively, our study shows that the transcription factor NFATC3 binds to IRF7 and functions synergistically to enhance IRF7-mediated IFN expression in pDCs.
Subject(s)
Dendritic Cells/metabolism , Interferon Regulatory Factor-7/genetics , NFATC Transcription Factors/metabolism , Transcription, Genetic , Animals , Base Sequence , CRISPR-Cas Systems/drug effects , Cell Nucleus/drug effects , Cell Nucleus/metabolism , Cells, Cultured , Dendritic Cells/drug effects , Gene Knockdown Techniques , HEK293 Cells , Humans , Interferon Regulatory Factor-7/metabolism , Interferon Type I/genetics , Interferon Type I/metabolism , Mice , NFATC Transcription Factors/chemistry , Oligodeoxyribonucleotides/pharmacology , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , Protein Binding/drug effects , Protein Binding/genetics , Protein Domains , Protein Transport/drug effects , Signal Transduction/drug effects , Structure-Activity Relationship , Transcription, Genetic/drug effectsABSTRACT
Inflammasomes are multiprotein platforms that activate caspase-1, which leads to the processing and secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1ß and IL-18. Previous studies demonstrated that bacterial RNAs activate the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich-repeat-containing family, pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in both human and murine macrophages. Interestingly, only mRNA, but neither tRNA nor rRNAs, derived from bacteria could activate the murine Nlrp3 inflammasome. Here, we report that all three types of bacterially derived RNA (mRNA, tRNA, and rRNAs) were capable of activating the NLRP3 inflammasome in human macrophages. Bacterial RNA's 5'-end triphosphate moieties, secondary structure, and double-stranded structure were dispensable; small fragments of bacterial RNA were sufficient to activate the inflammasome. In addition, we also found that 20-guanosine ssRNA can activate the NLRP3 inflammasome in human macrophages but not in murine macrophages. Therefore, human and murine macrophages may have evolved to recognize bacterial cytosolic RNA differently during bacterial infections.
