Recombinant histone H1.3 inhibits orthohantavirus infection in vitro

Abstract

Histones are proteins participating in DNA packaging. Despite this limited function, histones were shown to have antiviral activity. Histone H1.3 has been shown to inhibit adenovirus infection. Orthohantaviruses are viruses which can cause two diseases: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). There are no current FDA-approved vaccines or antivirals for hantavirus infection. In this study, we analyzed the effect of recombinant histone H1.3 on Prospect Hill virus (PHV) replication in A549 cells. PHV virus S segment gene and myxovirus resistance protein 1 (MxA), chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 (CCL5), and the 10-kDa interferon-inducible protein (IP10) cellular gene expression were evaluated in A549 cells treated with histone H1.3 using qPCR. The expression of PHV virus S segment gene mRNA was significantly decreased in A549 cells when incubated with histone H1.3 compared with PHV controls. CCL5, MxA, and IP10 gene mRNA expression in A549 cells incubated with histone H1.3 before PHV infection was also significantly reduced compared with control PHV only–infected cells. These results suggest that histone H1.3 reduces PHV transduction.