Specific Antiviral Activity Demonstrated by TGTP, A Member of a New Family of Interferon-Induced GTPases

The GTPase superfamily includes a diversity of molecules whose functions are regulated through the binding and hydrolysis of GTP. This superfamily can be segregated into families of functionally related molecules that typically share amino acid sequence similarity within and around the nucleotide-binding domains. A new family of putative GTPases, including IRG-47, LRG-47, IGTP, and TGTP/Mg21, has recently emerged that share significant sequence identity (25–40%). Expression of these molecules has been shown to be selectively induced by IFN-γ and in some cases by IFN-αβ or bacterial LPS. This induction pattern implicates these putative GTPases as part of the innate defense of cells to infection, but their role in such defense has not yet been defined. We have previously described the cloning of TGTP and now confirm its intrinsic activity as a GTPase. We found that TGTP is strongly induced by endogenous IFN-αβ produced in response to standard lipofection of plasmid DNA or polyinosinic polycytidilic acid. The ability of endogenously produced IFN-αβ to efficiently induce expression of TGTP under these conditions suggested that TGTP might participate in defense against viral infection. This proposal was borne out when TGTP-transfected L cells displayed relative resistance to plaque formation by vesicular stomatitis virus but not herpes simplex virus. This observation places TGTP among a small family of innate antiviral agents and has implications for the functions of other members of this family of GTPases.