Identification of CLEC5A in modulating host immune response after influenza A virus infection

Abstract

Human infections with influenza A virus (IAV) exhibit mild to severe clinical outcomes as a result of differential virus-host interactions. C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) are pattern recognition receptors that may sense carbohydrates, proteins, or lipids derived from infected hosts or the invading microbes including bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. CLR-viral interaction may lead to increased viral entry and spread; furthermore, their interactions have been reported to trigger downstream signaling that further modulates host’s innate immune responses through the induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. To date, DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR have been shown to mediate IAV entry; however, the potential interactions between other human transmembrane CLRs with IAV have not yet been systematically investigated. We utilized lentiviral-based pseudoparticles expressing influenza hemagglutinin (HA) to examine the binding potential between HA and a panel of human CLRs expressed in soluble form. CLEC5A was identified as a potential interacting target with the HA proteins derived from a highly pathogenic avian H5N1 virus A/VN/1203/04 (VN1203) or a human seasonal H1N1 virus A/HK/54/98 (HK5498), albeit at different binding intensity. Applying siRNA gene silencing, we confirmed that CLEC5A did not enhance influenza entry in human monocytic U937 cells that constitutively express CLEC5A or in the lentiviral-transduced stable CHO and CHO-Lec2 cells that overly expressed CLEC5A. To investigate downstream signaling upon engagement of CLEC5A to influenza virus, M-CSF or GM-CSF differentiated human macrophages with high expression levels of CLEC5A and DAP12, a known adaptor protein for CLEC5A upon phosphorylation to initiate signal transduction, was subjected to CLEC5A siRNA gene silencing followed by infection with recombinant A/PR/8/34 virus expressing HA and NA derived from either VN1203 (H5N1) or HK5498 (H1N1) viruses. RG-PR8xVN1203HA,NA (H5N1) exhibited a higher infectivity and induced higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-( and IFN-α) and chemokines (IP-10, MCP-1, MIG and MIP-1α) secretion in M-CSF or GM-CSF differentiated macrophages while compared to that of the RG-PR8xHK5498HA,NA (H1N1) virus. Knocking-down CLEC5A in macrophages led to a universal reduction of cytokines and chemokines secretion after infection with either the RG-PR8xVN1203HA,NA, RG-PR8xHK5498HA,NA, RG-A/VN/1203/04 (H5N1) or A/Shanghai/2/2014 (H7N9) viruses, suggesting that CLEC5A plays a role as cytokine and chemokine amplifier after influenza infection. Since DAP12 phosphorylation is known to activate downstream signaling via Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk), pre-incubation of M-CSF macrophages with a Syk inhibitor (Bay 61-3606) also lead to a significant reduction of TNF-α and IP-10 in infected macrophages. A higher mortality was observed in CLEC5A-/- mice while compared to the wild-type C57BL/6 mice after challenged with a lethal dose of RG-A/VN/1203/04 (H5N1) influenza virus suggesting that CLEC5A as a host innate response amplifier play a protective role upon influenza infection. In conclusion, we have identified CLEC5A as a novel host factor for influenza pathogenesis by modulating host innate inflammatory response.