Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons^™

Interleukin-17a Facilitates Chikungunya Virus Infection By Inhibiting Ifn-Α2 Expression, Biswas Neupane, Dhiraj Acharya, Farzana Nazneen, Gabriel Gonzalez-Fernandez, Alex Sutton Flynt, Fengwei Bai

Faculty Publications

Interferons (IFNs) are the key components of innate immunity and are crucial for host defense against viral infections. Here, we report a novel role of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) in inhibiting IFN-α2 expression thus promoting chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. CHIKV infected IL-17A deficient (Il17a^−/−) mice expressed a higher level of IFN-α2 and developed diminished viremia and milder footpad swelling in comparison to wild-type (WT) control mice, which was also recapitulated in IL-17A receptor-deficient (Il17ra^−/−) mice. Interestingly, IL-17A selectively blocked IFN-α2 production during CHIKV, but not West Nile virus (WNV) or Zika virus (ZIKV), infections. Recombinant IL-17A …