Double-Stranded RNA Cooperates with Interferon-γ and IL-1β to Induce Both Chemokine Expression and Nuclear Factor-κB-Dependent Apoptosis in Pancreatic β-Cells: Potential Mechanisms for Viral-Induced Insulitis and β-Cell Death in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Abstract Viral infections may trigger the autoimmune assault leading to type 1 diabetes mellitus. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is produced by many viruses during their replicative cycle. The dsRNA, tested as synthetic poly(IC) (PIC), in synergism with the proinflammatory cytokines interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and/or IL-1β, results in nitric oxide production, Fas expression, β-cell dysfunction, and death. Activation of the transcription nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is required for PIC-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in β-cells, and we hypothesized that this transcription factor may also participate in PIC-induced Fas expression and β-cell apoptosis. This hypothesis, and the possibility that PIC induces expression of additional chemokines and cytokines (previously reported as NF-κB dependent) in pancreatic β-cells, was investigated in the present study. We observed that the PIC-responsive region in the Fas promoter is located between nucleotides −223 and −54. Site-directed mutations at the NF-κB and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-binding sites prevented PIC-induced Fas promoter activity. Increased Fas promoter activity was paralleled by enhanced susceptibility of PIC + cytokine-treated β-cells to apoptosis induced by Fas ligand. β-Cell infection with the NF-κB inhibitor AdIκB(SA)2 prevented both necrosis and apoptosis induced by PIC + IL-1β or PIC + IFN-γ. Messenger RNAs for several chemokines and one cytokine were induced by PIC, alone or in combination with IFN-γ, in pancreatic β-cells. These included IP-10, interferon-γ-inducible protein-10, IL-15, macrophage chemoattractant protein-1, fractalkine, and macrophage inflammatory protein-3α. There was not, however, induction of IL-1β expression. We propose that dsRNA, generated during a viral infection, may contribute for β-cell demise by both inducing expression of chemokines and IL-15, putative contributors for the build-up of insulitis, and by synergizing with locally produced cytokines to induce β-cell apoptosis. Activation of the transcription factor NF-κB plays a central role in at least part of the deleterious effects of dsRNA in pancreatic β-cells.