Cl. Dent et al., RELATIVE TRANSCRIPTIONAL INDUCIBILITY OF THE HUMAN INTERFERON-ALPHA SUBTYPES CONFERRED BY THE VIRUS-RESPONSIVE ENHANCER SEQUENCE, Journal of interferon & cytokine research, 16(2), 1996, pp. 99-107
This paper addresses the role of transcriptional regulation in the det
ermination of the levels of expression of different interferon-alpha s
ubtypes secreted from Namalwa cells following infection with Sendai vi
rus, Using RT-PCR to determine the relative abundance of mRNA species
coding for the various subtypes, we found a general correlation with c
orresponding protein levels, indicative of a role for transcriptional
control in the determination of levels of individual subtypes. We have
used reporter gene constructs to compare the inducibility of the viru
s-response elements from the IFNA1, A2, A4, and A14 subtype genes clon
ed upstream of a secreted alkaline phosphatase gene, The inducibility
of these reporter gene constructs broadly correlated with the relative
mRNA abundances in both transiently and stably transfected Namalwa ce
lls, During work with stable cell lines, we found that G418, the drug
used for the selection of transfected cells, inhibited the induction o
f interferon by both Sendai virus and double-stranded RNA. This inhibi
tion was reversible when G418 was removed from the medium 24 h before
the addition of virus.