Major vault protein directly enhances adaptive immunity induced by Influenza A virus or indirectly through innate immunity.

As we previously revealed, major vault protein (MVP) is a virus-induced host factor, and its expression is crucial for innate immune responses. Nevertheless, the function of MVP in adaptive immunity is poorly known. Here, we demonstrate that Mvp knockout mice had attenuated antibody responses and reduced survival after rechallenge with homologous influenza A virus (IAV) relative to wild-type mice. Analysis of B cell populations showed that MVP promoted germinal center (GC) responses to develop optimal antiviral humoral immunity. Although MVP-deficient T cells and dendritic cells (DCs) were not intrinsically damaged, MVP promoted activating effector T cells and T follicular helper responses and regulated specific DC subsets. These findings suggest that MVP directs an effective adaptive immune response against IAV by directly engaging in GC reactions or indirectly augmenting cellular immunity via innate immune pathways.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Shi Liu reports financial support was provided by National Key Research and Development Program of China. Shi Liu reports financial support was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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