Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 1 C Proteins Are Nonessential Proteins That Inhibit the Host Interferon and Apoptotic Responses and Are Required for Efficient Replication in Nonhuman Primates

Recombinant human parainfluenza virus type 1 (rHPIV1) was modified to create rHPIV1-P(C−), a virus in which expression of the C proteins (C′, C, Y1, and Y2) was silenced without affecting the amino acid sequence of the P protein. Infectious rHPIV1-P(C−) was readily recovered from cDNA, indicating that the four C proteins were not essential for virus replication. Early during infection in vitro, rHPIV1-P(C−) replicated as efficiently as wild-type (wt) HPIV1, but its titer subsequently decreased coincident with the onset of an extensive cytopathic effect not observed with wt rHPIV1. rHPIV1-P(C−) infection, but not wt rHPIV1 infection, induced caspase 3 activation and nuclear fragmentation in LLC-MK2 cells, identifying the HPIV1 C proteins as inhibitors of apoptosis. In contrast to wt rHPIV1, rHPIV1-P(C−) and rHPIV1-CF170S, a mutant encoding an F170S substitution in C, induced interferon (IFN) and did not inhibit IFN signaling in vitro. However, only rHPIV1-P(C−) induced apoptosis. Thus, the anti-IFN and antiapoptosis activities of HPIV1 were separable: both activities are disabled in rHPIV1-P(C−), whereas only the anti-IFN activity is disabled in rHPIV1-CF170S. In African green monkeys (AGMs), rHPIV1-P(C−) was considerably more attenuated than rHPIV1-CF170S, suggesting that disabling the anti-IFN and antiapoptotic activities of HPIV1 had additive effects on attenuation in vivo. Although rHPIV1-P(C−) protected against challenge with wt HPIV1, its highly restricted replication in AGMs and in primary human airway epithelial cell cultures suggests that it might be overattenuated for use as a vaccine. Thus, the C proteins of HPIV1 are nonessential but have anti-IFN and antiapoptosis activities required for virulence in primates