Interferon-? Inhibits Ebola Virus Infection

Rhein, Bethany A.; Powers, Linda S.; Rogers, Kai; Anantpadma, Manu; Singh, Brajesh K.; Sakurai, Yasuteru; Bair, Thomas; Miller-Hunt, Catherine; Sinn, Patrick; Davey, Robert A.; Monick, Martha M.; Maury, Wendy

To identify the step(s) of the virus life cycle that is/are blocked by IFNγ, BALB/c IFNAR -/peritoneal macrophages were treated with IFNγ for 24 hours, infected with EBOV GP/rVSV, and monitored for viral RNA accumulation via qRT-PCR. After 2 hours of infection, IFNγ treatment had no significant effect on the quantity of VSV matrix (M) or polymerase (L) RNA detected, suggesting that IFNγ does not affect early events in the life cycle, such as entry (Fig 2A) . A previous study supports this observation, as IFNγ treatment of differentiated hMDMs did not significantly reduce entry of EBOV viral-like particles (VLPs) [32] . However, by 6 and 24 hours after infection, the steady increase in VSV M and L RNA levels in infected M-CSFstimulated peritoneal macrophages was significantly reduced by IFNγ treatment (Fig 2A) .