RIG-I/NF-kB Luciferase Reporter-HEK293T Cell Line

The RIG-I Luciferase reporter cell line is a stably transfected HEK 293T cell line which expresses human retinoic acid-induced protein-I (RIG-I) and Renilla luciferase reporter gene under the transcriptional control of the NF-kB response element. As a dsRNA helicase enzyme, RIG-I is encoded by the DDX58 gene. RIG-I is one of the RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs) that are a family of DExD/H box RNA helicases including RIG-I, MDA5 and LPG2, which play a major role in pathogen sensing of RNA virus infection to initiate and modulate antiviral immunity. RLR expression is typically maintained at low levels in resting cells but is greatly increased during inflammation, specifically with IFN exposure and after virus infection. RIG-I detects cytoplasmic dsRNA generated during viral replication unlike Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) which can detect phagocytosed dsRNA in endosomes. RIG-I also responds to poly (I:C), the synthetic analog of viral dsRNA. The RIG-I activation by poly (I:C) is shown in Figure 1.