An extracellular humanized IFNAR immunocompetent mouse model for analyses of human interferon alpha and subtypes

Type I interferons (IFN-Is) have key roles in immune defense and treatments for various diseases, including chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. All IFN-Is signal through a shared IFN-I heterodimeric receptor complex comprising IFN-α receptor 1 (IFNAR1) and IFNAR2 subunits, but differences in antiviral and immunomodulatory responses among IFN-I subtypes remain largely unknown. Because the IFN-IFNAR interactions are species-specific, mice exhibit weak responses to human IFN-I. To more fully characterize the actions of human IFN-α and its subtypes in vivo, a gene targeting strategy was employed to generate gene knock-in mice with extracellular-humanized IFNAR1/2 (IFNAR-hEC) in the C57BL/6N strain. IFNAR-hEC mice actively responded to human IFN-I, and endogenous mouse IFN-I signalling remained active in heterozygous mice (Ifnar^hEC/+). Analyses of IFNAR-hEC mice and isolated cells showed that human IFN-α2 and α14 subtypes exerted differential effect on the activation of JAK-STAT signalling and immune responses. Compared with IFN-α2, IFN-α14 induced greater activation of STAT1/2 and IFN-stimulated genes, synergistically elicited IFN-α and -γ signalling, and induced higher numbers of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells. Moreover, IFNAR-hEC mice with HBV replication displayed long-term viral suppression upon treatment with the clinically-used PEGylated hIFN-α2. These results indicate that IFNAR-hEC mice may be useful for elucidating antiviral and immunomodulatory functions of human IFN-Is and for conducting preclinical studies. A better understanding of the distinct activities of IFN-α subtypes can provide insights concerning the development of improved IFN-based therapy.