SARS‐CoV‐2 NSP13 interacts with host IRF3, blocking antiviral immune responses

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), poses an unprecedented threat to human health since late 2019. Notably, the progression of the disease is associated with impaired antiviral interferon (IFN) responses. Although multiple viral proteins were identified as potential IFN antagonists, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. In this study, we firstly demonstrate that SARS‐CoV‐2 NSP13 protein robustly antagonizes IFN response induced by the constitutively active form of transcription factor IRF3 (IRF3/5D). This induction of IFN response by IRF3/5D is independent of the upstream kinase, TBK1, a previously reported NSP13 target, thus indicating that NSP13 can act at the level of IRF3 to antagonize IFN production. Consistently, NSP13 exhibits a specific, TBK1‐independent interaction with IRF3, which, moreover, is much stronger than that of NSP13 with TBK1. Furthermore, the NSP13‐IRF3 interaction was shown to occur between the NSP13 1B domain and IRF3 IRF association domain (IAD). In agreement with the strong targeting of IRF3 by NSP13, we then found that NSP13 blocks IRF3‐directed signal transduction and antiviral gene expression, counteracting IRF3‐driven anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 activity. These data suggest that IRF3 is likely to be a major target of NSP13 in antagonizing antiviral IFN responses and provide new insights into the SARS‐CoV‐2–host interactions that lead to viral immune evasion.