IRF Pathway

Interferon Regulation Pathway is a crucial component of the immune response, particularly in antiviral defense. Dysregulation of the IRF-mediated interferon pathway is implicated in several autoimmune diseases. The components targeting this pathway has therapeutic potential in treating viral infections, autoimmune diseases, and cancers  [Ref1].

2. Lentivirus Detects IRF Pathway:

GenTarget developed a set of reporting lentivirus to monitor IRF signaling pathway activity. Those reporting lentivirus has a luminescent report (Luciferase) or a fluorescent report (GFP), under a minimal CMV promoter (mCMV) that embedded with optimized tandem repeats of pathway specific IRF binding motif as the transcriptional response element (TRE ), sequence motif (5′- AGAAAATGAAATTGACT-GAAACTGAAACT-AAAGCGAAA  3′) [Ref 2].

IRF is activated by Viral Components (viral DNA, dsRNA or ssRNA), Bacterial DNA, Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) or viral proteins, in response to infection. Upon activation, the IRF signal pathway trigger a cascade of signaling events, which eventually lead the Phosphorylated IRFs translocate to the nucleus and bind to the IRF binding motif in the report’s promoter region, leading to increased expression of the reporter protein (luciferase or GFP).

3. Structure of the Reporting Lentivirus:

The pathway specific reporting Lentivirus use either firefly-luciferase or GFP signal changes to detect the pathway’s activity.   Those reporting lentivirus also contains a constitutively expressed Puromycin antibiotic selection marker, or a GFP fluorescent selection marker, which makes it easier to select the stably transduced signal reporting cells, via Puromycin killing or GFP sorting respectively. See lentivector core scheme below.

The premade, ready-to-use reporter lentivirus provides a much easier tool to monitor the activity of the signaling pathways in virtually any mammalian cell type. It also allows to generate your own reporting cell line in your desired cell type for study or screening of pathway specific gene-knockdown, over-expression, or chemical / drug/protein treatment in the cell based assay.

Click the Product Manual (pdf) for all available products for this pathway reporter.