Journal
JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGICAL METHODS
Volume 381, Issue 1-2, Pages 70-74Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jim.2012.04.010
Keywords
Reporter gene assays; eGFP; Mx promoter; IFN-alpha; IFN-beta; WISH cells
Categories
Funding
- Universidad Nacional del Litoral [CAI + D 2009-12B/072]
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET)
- Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica, Argentina [PICT 2007/01789]
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Interferons (IFNs) are potent biologically active proteins that are widely used as biopharmaceuticals, so their potency must be correctly identified. Usually, the biological activity is quantified by a bioassay based on its capacity to induce an antiviral state in target cells, but this type of assays is subject to virus manipulation-related issues and they show considerable intra- and inter-assay variability. In this work, we generated a reporter gene assay (RGA) supported on the WISH-Mx/eGFP reporter cell line to determine human type I IFN activity. WISH cells were stably transfected with the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene under the control of type I IFN-inducible Mx2 promoter. This system implies the use of a standardized cell line for human IFN-potency analysis such as WISH cells and the simultaneous use of the sensitive reporter gene eGFP, having also several advantages when compared to antiviral activity assays and other RGAs: it can determine the potency of hIFN-alpha and hIFN-beta using only one cell line showing the highest expression of eGFP after 28 h and being only observed in cells treated with type I IFNs due to the specificity of the Mx promoter. It is a sensitive assay and it represents a safe alternative when compared with the conventional antiviral tests. The cell line showed the same sensitivity along 57 generations, allowing its use during two months of successive culture. The inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation were lower than 20%, demonstrating its reproducibility. In addition, this reporter cell line can be used for the conventional antiviral assay, either for hIFN-alpha or hIFN-beta. In conclusion, we have developed an alternative reporter system for the analysis of type I IFNs, in which its performance make it a suitable candidate to replace or complement conventional bioassays that are currently employed to measure IFN potency. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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