Inhibition of Autophagy Does Not Affect Innate Cytokine Production in Human Lung Epithelial Cells During Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the major causes of childhood acute lower respiratory tract infection worldwide. Autophagy is an intracellular pathway involved in nutrient recycling. Recently, autophagy has been reported to play a role in regulating host cytokine response to several viruses, including vesicular stomatitis virus and human immunodeficiency virus. Previous in vivo studies using mouse model has shown that inhibition of autophagy reduces RSV-induced cytokine production. However, the role of autophagy in modulating RSV-induced cytokine response in human cells has not been reported. We investigated the role of autophagy in regulating the production of the cytokines C-X-C motif ligand 8 (CXCL8) and C-C motif ligand 5 (CCL5), in RSV-infected human bronchial epithelium BEAS-2B cells. Fluorescent microscopic analysis showed that RSV infection induced autophagosome formation in BEAS-2B cells. This autophagy inducing ability of RSV was further confirmed by flow cytometry. The effects of pharmacological inhibition of autophagy by SAR405 or chloroquine on cell death and cytokine release were quantified using lactate dehydrogenase assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. We found that SAR405 or chloroquine did not cause cell death. Importantly, ELISA analysis showed that pharmacological inhibition of autophagy by SAR405 or chloroquine did not affect the productions of both CXCL5 and CXCL8. In contrast to the previous studies using mouse model, our data suggest that pharmacological inhibition of autophagy may not be a suitable strategy in controlling RSV-induced airway inflammation.