Viral sensing at the blood-brain barrier: new roles for innate immunity at the CNS vasculature.

Neurotropic viral infections are a major source of disease worldwide and represent a growing burden to public health. While the central nervous system (CNS) is normally protected from viral infection by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), many viruses are able to cross the BBB and establish CNS infection through processes that largely remain poorly understood. A growing body of recent research has begun to shed light on the viral and host factors that modulate BBB function, contributing to both protective and pathological disease processes. Central to these studies have been the actions of host cytokines and chemokines, which have increasingly been shown to be key regulators of BBB physiology. This review summarizes recent advances in understanding how BBB function governs both viral pathogenesis and host immune responses during neurotropic viral infections.

Identification of the proximal erythroid promoter region of the mouse anion exchanger gene.

The AE1 gene is expressed in erythrocytes and the A-type intercalated cells of the kidney distal collecting duct. Although the 5' end of the principal transcript expressed in murine erythroid cells has previously been mapped to a cluster of transcription start sites located immediately upstream of exon 1, the 5' end of the mouse kidney transcript has not been identified. Using the anchored polymerase chain reaction technique to analyze mouse kidney AE1 mRNA, we identified an internal transcription start site located within erythroid intron 3. This site defines an exon of 37 nucleotides that forms the 5' end of the mouse kidney AE1 transcript. AE1 transcripts beginning at this internal start site could not be detected in RNA isolated from purified erythroid progenitor cells or from erythroid cells undergoing erythropoietin-dependent terminal maturation, although transcripts derived from the upstream site were abundant, indicating that only the upstream promoter is active during erythropoiesis. Transient expression of reporter constructs in erythroid and nonerythroid cell lines identified a proximal upstream region of approximately 135 nucleotides that was active as a basal promoter. However, an additional approximately 200 nucleotides of upstream sequence was required for induced levels of activity in erythroid cells. Although our functional approach does not yet indicate the precise sequences required for erythroid induction, the AE1 gene upstream region contains potential GATA sites at -154, -141, and -60; an E-box at -163; CACCC or GGTGG motifs at -188, -121, and -88; and an AP-1/NF-E2-like site at -42.

The structure and organization of the human erythroid anion exchanger (AE1) gene.

The AE1 (anion exchanger, band 3) protein is expressed in erythrocytes and in the A-type intercalated cells of the kidney distal collecting tubule. In both cell types it mediates the electroneutral transport of chloride and bicarbonate ions across the lipid bilayer, and, in erythrocytes, it also serves as the critical attachment site of the peripheral membrane skeleton. We have characterized the human AE1 gene using overlapping clones isolated from a phage library of human genomic DNA. The gene spans approximately 20 kb and consists of 20 exons separated by 19 introns. The structure of the human AE1 gene corresponds closely with that of the previously characterized mouse AE1 gene, with a high degree of conservation of exon/intron junctions, as well as exon and intron nucleotide sequences. The putative upstream and internal promoter sequences of the human AE1 gene used in erythroid and kidney cells, respectively, are described. We also report the nucleotide sequence of the entire 3' noncoding region of exon 20, which was lacking in the published cDNA sequences. In addition, we have characterized 9 Alu repeat elements found within the body of the human AE1 gene that are members of 4 related subfamilies that appear to have entered the genome at different times during primate evolution.