Mycobacterium tuberculosis exerts gene-selective inhibition of transcriptional responses to IFN-gamma without inhibiting STAT1 function.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a highly successful human pathogen. A major component of this success is the pathogen's ability to avoid eradication by the innate and adaptive immune responses throughout the course of infection. IFN-gamma, a potent activator of the microbicidal activities of macrophages, is essential for control of M. tuberculosis infection, but is unable to stimulate macrophages to kill M. tuberculosis. We have found that infection of the human monocytic cell line, THP-1, resulted in reduced cellular responses to IFN-gamma, manifested as impaired induction of CD64 surface expression and transcription. This defect in transcription occurred despite normal activation of STAT1 in infected macrophages: there was no decrease in STAT1 tyrosine or serine phosphorylation, nuclear translocation, or binding of a minimal IFN-gamma response sequence. Assays of STAT1 function in M. tuberculosis-treated cells also revealed no defect in activation of a minimal gamma-activated sequence construct or STAT1 recruitment to and binding at the endogenous CD64 promoter. In addition, M. tuberculosis did not affect histone acetylation at the CD64 promoter. The inhibition of transcription was gene selective: while transcription of CD64 and class II transactivator were decreased, certain other IFN-gamma-responsive genes either were unaffected or were increased by M. tuberculosis. These results indicate that M. tuberculosis inhibits the response to IFN-gamma by a mechanism distinct from either suppressor of cytokine signaling-1 inhibition of STAT1 phosphorylation or protein inhibitor of activated STAT interference with DNA binding, and indicate that other mechanisms of inhibition of IFN-gamma responses remain to be discovered.