Human respiratory syncytial virus infection is inhibited by IFN-induced transmembrane proteins

The IFN immune system plays an essential role in protecting the host against most viral infections. In order to explore the interactions between the IFN pathway and human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, and to identify potential IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) that may be involved in suppressing the replication of RSV, we utilized an IFN pathway-specific microarray to study the effects of RSV infection on the IFN pathway in HeLa cells. We showed that RSV infection enhanced the expression of a series of ISGs, including oligoadenylate synthetase 2, IFITM1 (IFN-induced transmembrane protein 1) and myxovirus resistance 2. Our results also showed that the IFITM proteins potently inhibited RSV infection mainly by interfering with both virus entry and the subsequent replication steps, but not the attachment process. The antiviral effect of IFITM3 was not affected by ubiquitination modification. Furthermore, knocking down the endogenous and IFN-induced expression of IFITM1 and 3 facilitated RSV infection. Expression of the IFITM proteins was found to delay the phosphorylation of IFN regulatory factor 3 through interfering with the detection of viral RNA by MDA5 (melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5) and RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene I). These results demonstrated that the restriction of RSV infection by the IFITM proteins was achieved through the inhibition of virus entry and replication, and they provided further insight for exploring the mechanism of IFITM-protein-mediated virus restriction.