Roles of a novel splice variant of human IFI16 in innate immune response

Abstract

DNA from viral or bacterial pathogens activates innate immune response. The recognition of self-DNA would induce autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In human, AIM2 like receptors (ALRs) including AIM2, IFI16, IFIX and MNDA are DNA binding proteins implicated in DNA sensing. Most ALRs contain an N-terminal pyrin domain and C-terminal HIN200 domains. However, mouse SLE susceptibility locus p202 encodes only HIN200 domains. A human homolog of p202 was not found. Here, we identified and characterized a novel splice variant of human IFI16, which has a similar domain structure as mouse p202. We named it ...