GSE120877
Bacterial sepsis triggers an antiviral response that causes translation shutdown
In response to viral pathogens, the host upregulates antiviral genes that suppress translation of viral mRNAs. However, induction of such antiviral responses may not be exclusive to viruses as the pathways lie at the intersection of broad inflammatory networks that can also be induced by bacterial pathogens. Using a model of Gram-negative sepsis, we show that propagation of kidney damage initiated by a bacterial origin ultimately involves antiviral responses that result in host translation shutdown. We determined that activation of the Eif2ak2-Eif2a axis is the key mediator of translation initiation block in late phase sepsis. Reversal of this axis mitigated kidney injury. Furthermore, temporal profiling of the kidney translatome revealed that multiple genes involved in formation of the initiation complex were translationally altered during bacterial sepsis. Collectively, our findings implicate that translation shutdown is indifferent to the specific initiating pathogen and is an important determinant of tissue injury in sepsis. Overall design: C57BL/6J male mice were subjected to vehicle (control), LPS (5 mg/kg iv), or LPS and ISRIB (5 mg/kg iv and ip respectively) for indicated durations.