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Human Cytomegalovirus Interleukin 10 Homologs: Facing the Immune System

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Poole, Emma 
Neves, Tainan Cerqueira 
Oliveira, Martha Trindade 
Sinclair, John 
da Silva, Maria Cristina Carlan 

Abstract

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can cause a variety of health disorders that can lead to death in immunocompromised individuals and neonates. The HCMV lifecycle comprises both a lytic (productive) and a latent (non-productive) phase. HCMV lytic infection occurs in a wide range of terminally differentiated cell types. HCMV latency has been less well-studied, but one characterized site of latency is in precursor cells of the myeloid lineage. All known viral genes are expressed during a lytic infection and a subset of these are also transcribed during latency. The UL111A gene which encodes the viral IL-10, a homolog of the human IL-10, is one of these genes. During infection, different transcript isoforms of UL111A are generated by alternative splicing. The most studied of the UL111A isoforms are cmvIL-10 (also termed the “A” transcript) and LAcmvIL-10 (also termed the “B” transcript), the latter being a well-characterized latency associated transcript. Both isoforms can downregulate MHC class II, however they differ in a number of other immunomodulatory properties, such as the ability to bind the IL10 receptor and induce signaling through STAT3. There are also a number of other isoforms which have been identified which are expressed by differential splicing during lytic infection termed C, D, E, F, and G, although these have been less extensively studied. HCMV uses the viral IL-10 proteins to manipulate the immune system during lytic and latent phases of infection. In this review, we will discuss the literature on the viral IL-10 transcripts identified to date, their encoded proteins and the structures of these proteins as well as the functional properties of all the different isoforms of viral IL-10.

Description

Keywords

Cellular and Infection Microbiology, human cytomegalovirus, HCMV, HCMV interleukin 10 homolog, UL111A, IL-10 signaling

Journal Title

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2235-2988

Volume Title

10

Publisher

Frontiers Media S.A.