Influenza A virus activates cellular Tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA) signaling to promote viral replication and lung inflammation

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Abstract

Influenza A virus (IAV) infection causes acute respiratory disease with potential severe and deadly complications. Viral pathogenesis is not only due to the direct cytopathic effect of viral infections but also to the exacerbated host inflammatory responses. Influenza viral infection can activate various host signaling pathways that function to activate or inhibit viral replication. Our previous studies have shown that a receptor tyrosine kinase TrkA plays an important role in the replication of influenza viruses in vitro, but its biological roles and functional mechanisms in influenza viral infection have not been characterized. Here we show that IAV infection strongly activates TrkA in vitro and in vivo. Using a chemical-genetic approach to specifically control TrkA kinase activity through a small molecule compound 1NMPP1 in a TrkA knock-in (TrkA KI) mouse model, we show that 1NMPP1-mediated TrkA inhibition completely protected mice from a lethal IAV infection by significantly reducing viral loads and lung inflammation. Using primary lung cells isolated from the TrkA KI mice, we show that specific TrkA inhibition reduced IAV viral RNA synthesis in airway epithelial cells (AECs) but not in alveolar macrophages (AMs). Transcriptomic analysis confirmed the cell-type-specific role of TrkA in viral RNA synthesis, and identified distinct gene expression patterns under the TrkA regulation in IAV-infected AECs and AMs. Among the TrkA-activated targets are various proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines such as IL6, IL-1β, IFNs, CCL-5, and CXCL9, supporting the role of TrkA in mediating lung inflammation. Indeed, while TrkA inhibitor 1NMPP1 administered after the peak of IAV replication had no effect on viral load, it was able to decrease lung inflammation and provided partial protection in mice. Taken together, our results have demonstrated for the first time an important biological role of TrkA signaling in IAV infection, identified its cell-type-specific contribution to viral replication, and revealed its functional mechanism in virus-induced lung inflammation. This study suggests TrkA as a novel host target for therapeutic development against influenza viral disease.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere1010874
JournalPLoS pathogens
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The study was partially supported by National Institute of Health R21 AI094133 to YL. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Keqiang Ye (Emory University) for providing the TrkA KI mouse line, Ryan Langlois (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) for providing A/CA04 strain of influenza A virus.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Verma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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