Abstract
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
is a causative agent of severe-to-fatal pneumonia especially
in patients with pre-existing conditions, such as smoking and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). MERS-CoV
transmission continues to be reported in the Saudi Arabian
Peninsula since its discovery in 2012. However, it has rarely
been epidemic outside the area except one large outbreak
in South Korea in May 2015. The genome of the epidemic
MERS-CoV isolated from a Korean patient revealed its homology
to previously reported strains. MERS-CoV encodes
5 accessory proteins and generally, they do not participate
in the genome transcription and replication but rather are involved
in viral evasion of the host innate immune responses.
Here we report that ORF8b, an accessory protein of MERSCoV,
strongly inhibits both MDA5- and RIG-I-mediated activation
of interferon beta promoter activity while downstream
signaling molecules were left largely unaffected. Of
note, MDA5 protein levels were significantly down-regulated
by ORF8b and co-expression of ORF4a and ORF4b. These
novel findings will facilitate elucidation of mechanisms of
virus-encoded evasion strategies, thus helping design rationale
antiviral countermeasures against deadly MERS-CoV
infection.
Citations
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