University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
Title
Cutting Edge: A Natural Antisense Transcript, AS-IL1alpha, Controls Inducible Transcription of the Proinflammatory Cytokine IL-1alpha
UMMS Affiliation
Program in Innate Immunity; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology
Publication Date
2015-08-15
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Animals; Cell Line; Cluster Analysis; Gene Expression Profiling; *Gene Expression Regulation; Gene Knockdown Techniques; Genetic Loci; *Inflammation Mediators; Interleukin-1alpha; Ligands; Macrophages; Mice; NF-kappa B; RNA Interference; RNA, Antisense; RNA, Untranslated; Toll-Like Receptors; *Transcription, Genetic
Disciplines
Immunity
Abstract
Natural antisense transcripts (NATs) are a class of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are complementary to other protein-coding genes. Although thousands of NATs are encoded by mammalian genomes, their functions in innate immunity are unknown. In this study, we identified and characterized a novel NAT, AS-IL1alpha, which is partially complementary to IL-1alpha. Similar to IL-1alpha, AS-IL1alpha is expressed at low levels in resting macrophages and is induced following infection with Listeria monocytogenes or stimulation with TLR ligands (Pam3CSK4, LPS, polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid). Inducible expression of IL-1alpha mRNA and protein were significantly reduced in macrophages expressing shRNA that target AS-IL1alpha. AS-IL1alpha is located in the nucleus and did not alter the stability of IL-1alpha mRNA. Instead, AS-IL1alpha was required for the recruitment of RNA polymerase II to the IL-1alpha promoter. In summary, our studies identify AS-IL1alpha as an important regulator of IL-1alpha transcription during the innate immune response.
DOI of Published Version
10.4049/jimmunol.1500264
Source
J Immunol. 2015 Aug 15;195(4):1359-63. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1500264. Epub 2015 Jul 15. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)
PubMed ID
26179904
Repository Citation
Chan J, Atianand MK, Jiang Z, Carpenter SB, Aiello D, Elling R, Fitzgerald KA, Caffrey DR. (2015). Cutting Edge: A Natural Antisense Transcript, AS-IL1alpha, Controls Inducible Transcription of the Proinflammatory Cytokine IL-1alpha. University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.1500264. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/944