Plasmacytoid dendritic cells stimulated with Lactococcus lactis strain Plasma produce soluble factors to suppress SARS-CoV-2 replication

Hiroshi Ishii; Kenta Jounai; Ryohei Tsuji; Konomi Ohshio; Daiki Kaneda; Midori Okazaki; Shigeyoshi Harada; Daisuke Fujiwara; Tetsuro Matano

doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2023.04.046

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells stimulated with Lactococcus lactis strain Plasma produce soluble factors to suppress SARS-CoV-2 replication

Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2023 Jun 25:662:26-30. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2023.04.046. Epub 2023 Apr 17.

Authors

Hiroshi Ishii¹, Kenta Jounai², Ryohei Tsuji², Konomi Ohshio², Daiki Kaneda³, Midori Okazaki⁴, Shigeyoshi Harada⁴, Daisuke Fujiwara², Tetsuro Matano⁵

Affiliations

¹ AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8640, Japan. Electronic address: hishii@niid.go.jp.
² Kirin Central Research Institute, Kirin Holdings, Co., Ltd., 2-26-1 Muraoka-Higashi, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, 251-8555, Japan.
³ AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8640, Japan; Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8639, Japan.
⁴ AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8640, Japan.
⁵ AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8640, Japan; Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8639, Japan; Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection, Kumamoto University, 2-2-1 Honjo, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto, 860-0811, Japan. Electronic address: tmatano@niid.go.jp.

Abstract

Innate immune responses are important in the control of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) replication. We have previously found a lactic acid bacteria species, Lactococcus lactis strain Plasma (LC-Plasma), which possesses specific feature to activate plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and thus may affect innate immune responses. Here, we investigated the impact of pDC activation by LC-Plasma on SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Addition of the culture supernatant of pDCs stimulated with LC-Plasma resulted in suppression of SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero and Calu-3 cells. We confirmed interferon-α (IFN-α) secretion in the supernatant of pDCs stimulated with LC-Plasma and induction of IFN-stimulated genes in cells treated with the pDC supernatant. Anti-IFN-α antibody impaired the suppression of SARS-CoV-2 replication by the supernatant of LC-Plasma-stimulated pDCs, suggesting that IFN-α plays an important role in the SARS-CoV-2 suppression. Our results indicate the potential of LC-Plasma to induce inhibitory responses against SARS-CoV-2 replication through pDC stimulation with IFN-α secretion.

Keywords: Innate immunity; Interferon; LC-Plasma; SARS-CoV-2; pDC.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Dendritic Cells
Humans
Interferon-alpha
Lactococcus lactis*
SARS-CoV-2

Substances

Interferon-alpha