As a zoonotic virus, Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) poses a serious threat to human health and the breeding industry. Regarding the mechanism and complications of tissue inflammation caused by JEV, such as encephalitis and orchitis, there is no effective drug treatment currently, and the mechanism of occurrence has not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, it is necessary to study the mechanism of the inflammatory pathway caused by JEV. As one of the key proteins regulating cell death, BCL2 antagonist/killer (BAK) is also a necessary prerequisite for the release of cellular inflammatory factors. We found that after JEV infection, BAK-knockdown cells died less than normal cells, and the transcription levels of inflammatory factors such as TNF, IFNα, and IL-1β and their corresponding regulatory genes were also significantly reduced. By further verifying protein expression on the cell death pathway, it was found that pyroptotic activation and virus titer were also significantly reduced in BAK.KD cells, suggesting that JEV proliferation might be related to BAK-induced cell death. From our data, we could conclude that JEV utilized the BAK-promoted pyroptotic pathway to release more virions after the final Gasdermin D-N (GSDMD-N) protein pore formation for the purpose of JEV proliferation. Therefore, the study of the endogenous cell death activator protein BAK and the final release pathway of JEV, is expected to provide some new theoretical basis for future research on the screening of targeted drugs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases caused by JEV.
Keywords: BAK; GSDMD; JEV; inflammatory cytokines; pyroptosis.