title: Peli1 negatively regulates type I interferon induction and antiviral immunity in the CNS.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Type I interferons (IFN-Is) serve as mediators of antiviral innate immunity and also regulate adaptive immune responses. The molecular mechanism that regulates virus-induced IFN-I production, particularly in tissue-resident immune cells, is incompletely understood.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here we identified the E3 ubiquitin ligase Peli1 as a negative regulator of IFN-I induction in microglia, innate immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). Peli1 deficiency profoundly promoted IFN-β expression in microglia in response to in vitro stimulation by toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands or a CNS-tropic virus, the vascular stomatitis virus (VSV). Upon intranasal infection with VSV, the Peli1-deficient mice displayed heightened in vivo IFN-I responses in the CNS, coupled with reduced brain viral titer and increased survival rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results establish Peli1 as an innate immune regulator in the CNS that modulates the threshold of IFN-I responses against viral infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Box 902, Houston, TX 77030 USA ; Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Science/Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200031 China.
authors.forename: Yichuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Box 902, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Box 902, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Box 902, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
authors.forename: Hongbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Box 902, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
authors.forename: Xuhong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Box 902, Houston, TX 77030 USA ; The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
authors.forename: Shao-Cong
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Sun
keywords: Antiviral immunity; CNS; Peli1; Type I interferon