2. Academic Validation
  3. Duck plague virus ICP27 protein suppresses IFN-β production by dual targeting of DNA- and RNA-sensing pathways

Duck plague virus ICP27 protein suppresses IFN-β production by dual targeting of DNA- and RNA-sensing pathways

  • Vet Microbiol. 2025 Aug 25:310:110696. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2025.110696.
Mengya Zhang 1,  Yumei He 1,  Fengchen Jin 1,  Mingshu Wang 2,  Qiao Yang 2,  Renyong Jia 2,  Shun Chen 2,  Bin Tian 2,  Xumin Ou 2,  Juan Huang 2,  Di Sun 2,  Dekang Zhu 2,  Mafeng Liu 2,  Shaqiu Zhang 2,  Xin-Xin Zhao 2,  Yu He 2,  Zhen Wu 2,  Ying Wu 3,  Anchun Cheng 4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Avian Disease Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine of Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China.
  • 2 Engineering Research Center of Southwest Animal Disease Prevention and Control Technology, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Chengdu 611130, China; International Joint Research Center for Animal Disease Prevention and Control of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China; Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China; Avian Disease Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine of Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China.
  • 3 Engineering Research Center of Southwest Animal Disease Prevention and Control Technology, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Chengdu 611130, China; International Joint Research Center for Animal Disease Prevention and Control of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China; Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China; Avian Disease Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine of Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China. Electronic address: wuy@sicau.edu.cn.
  • 4 Engineering Research Center of Southwest Animal Disease Prevention and Control Technology, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Chengdu 611130, China; International Joint Research Center for Animal Disease Prevention and Control of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China; Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China; Avian Disease Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine of Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, China. Electronic address: chenganchun@vip.163.com.
PMID: 40912032 DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2025.110696
Abstract

Duck plague virus (DPV), an alphaherpesvirus causing severe economic losses in global waterfowl industries, adopts sophisticated strategies to subvert host Antiviral immunity. Here, we identify DPV ICP27 as a pivotal immune evasion protein that concurrently inhibits both DNA (cGAS-STING) and RNA (RIG-I/MDA5-MAVS) innate immune sensing pathways-a novel function unreported in avian herpesviruses. Through co-transfection and Infection assays in duck embryo fibroblasts (DEFs), we demonstrate that ICP27 suppresses key immune sensors' transcriptional and protein expression levels (STING, RIG-I) and the transcription factor IRF7. Co-immunoprecipitation confirms ICP27 binds to IRF7, impairing interferon regulatory functions, impairing interferon regulatory functions. Crucially, Infection with ICP27-knockout DPV (DPV-ΔICP27) significantly enhances IFN-β, IL-6, Mx, and OASL expression compared to wild-type virus. Phylogenetic analyses reveal conserved yet species-specific functional divergence of ICP27 across herpesviruses. Our findings identify a unique "multi-target cooperative suppression" mechanism employed by DPV, which enhances our understanding of avian herpesviral immune evasion and offers potential targets for developing novel Antiviral strategies.

Keywords

CGAS-STING/RIG-I signaling; Duck plague virus (DPV); ICP27; IFN-β; Innate immunity evasion.

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