Native tertiary structure and nucleoside modifications suppress tRNA's intrinsic ability to activate the innate immune sensor PKR.

ABSTRACT: Interferon inducible protein kinase PKR is an essential component of innate immunity. It is activated by long stretches of dsRNA and provides the first line of host defense against pathogens by inhibiting translation initiation in the infected cell. Many cellular and viral transcripts contain nucleoside modifications and/or tertiary structure that could affect PKR activation. We have previously demonstrated that a 5'-end triphosphate-a signature of certain viral and bacterial transcripts-confers the ability of relatively unstructured model RNA transcripts to activate PKR to inhibit translation, and that this activation is abrogated by certain modifications present in cellular RNAs. In order to understand the biological implications of native RNA tertiary structure and nucleoside modificati

SUBMITTER: Nallagatla SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3587421 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature