Establishment of RIG-I knockout 293T cell line and its effect on the replication of influenza B virus

Abstract

The CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology directs Cas9 protein to recognize, bind and cleave the target site specifically by using artificial single-guide RNA (sgRNA), through non-homologous end joining or homologous end-recombinant repair mechanisms of cells, which can be engineered to knockout or knock-in of genomes. RIG-I is a pattern recognition receptor that recognizes the 5'-triphosphate-containing RNA in the cytoplasm and activates IRF3/7 and NF-κB by interacting with the downstream signaling molecule MAVS, thus initiating the expression of type I interferons and inflammatory factors. Previous studies found that influenza B virus (IBV) can up-regulate the expression of RIG-I. In the present study, to explore whether RIG-I is the major receptor for IBV to active the antiviral innate immune response and its effect on IBV replication, RIG-I gene in 293T cells was knocked out by CRISPR-Cas9 system, and a stable RIG-I knockout 293T (RIG-I(-/-) 293T) cell line was screened by puromycin pressure. The results of Western blotting showed that RIG-I was not expressed in this cell line after IBV or Sendai virus (SeV) infection, indicating that the RIG-I(-/-) 293T cell line was successfully constructed. The transcription levels of interferons, inflammatory factors and interferon-stimulated genes in RIG-I(-/-) 293T cells which were infected by IBV decreased significantly compared with those in wild-type 293T cells. Moreover, the phosphorylation of p65 and IRF3 were not detected in IBV or SeV infected RIG-I(-/-) 293T cells. It is indicated that the expression of cytokines mainly depends on the RIG-I-mediated signaling pathway at the early stage of IBV infection. Furthermore, the multi-step growth curves of IBV in the wild type and RIG-I(-/-) 293T cells showed that RIG-I inhibited the replication of IBV. Collectively, the RIG-I knockout 293T cell line was successfully constructed. We found that RIG-I is the main receptor for IBV to active the antiviral innate immune response and is critical for inhibiting IBV replication, which lays the foundation for further study of IBV infection mechanism.