Investigating the role of coiled-coil domain containing 124 (CCDC124) in innate antiviral immune response

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2352861 _(Table of contents)

The innate immune system acts as the first line of defense in a non-specific manner against infectious diseases as well as malignant transformation. Natural Killer (NK) cells are members of innate immune system which are particularly responsible for killing virus-infected cells and tumor cells. Distinct properties of NK cells are remarkable in terms of cancer immunotherapy. Among several approaches, genetic modification of NK cells to enhance their immune function is widely studied with promising results but in vitro gene delivery into NK cells is highly challenging. HIV-1 based lentiviral vector systems for stable gene transfer have been used in most of the studies that aim genetic modification of NK cells. However, viral resistance of NK cells causes low efficiency and reduced stability, but enhancement of gene delivery efficiency is possible to achieve with small-molecule kinase inhibitors, such as BX795. Stress granule assembly is known to be associated with antiviral responses. This study aims to study the effect of CCDC124 gene which may be associated with stress granule formation and antiviral response during lentiviral gene transfer to NK cells. To investigate the mechanism, CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to knock out CCDC124 and other genes that may be involved in the intracellular response against lentiviral vectors in HCT116, NK-92 and YTS cell lines. We compared the responses of different cell lines to lentiviral transduction and observed significant change in transduction efficiencies. Additionally, stress granule formation in CCDC124 knockout NK-92 cells is examined. Our findings present novel insights into the resistance of NK cells to lentiviral gene delivery and provide useful tools to improve genetic modification of NK cells