Monitoring of Interferon Response Triggered by Cells Infected by Hepatitis C Virus or Other Viruses Upon Cell-Cell Contact.

Abstract

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) constitute a unique DC subset specialized in rapid and massive secretion of cytokines, includingtype I interferon (i.e., IFNα and IFNβ), known to be pivotal for both innate immunity and the onset of adaptive response. The production of type IIFNs by pDCs is primarily induced by the recognition of viral nucleic acids through Toll-like receptor (TLR)-7 and -9 sensors located in the endolysosomal compartment. Importantly, in the context of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, pDC type IIFN response is triggered by the sensing of infected cells via physical cell-cell contact. Such a feature is also observed for many genetically distant viruses, including notably viruses ofthe Retroviridae, Arenaviridae, Flaviviridae, Picornaviridaea, Togaviridae families and observed for various infected cell types. Here, we described a set of experimental methods forthe ex vivo studies of the regulation ofpDC activation uponphysical cell-cell contact with virallyinfected cells.