Delayed IFN response differentiates replication of West Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis virus in human neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cells.

West Nile virus (WNV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) are important causes of human encephalitis cases, which result in a high mortality ratio and neurological sequelae after recovery. Understanding the mechanism of neuropathogenicity in these viral infections is important for the development of specific antiviral therapy. Here, we focused on human-derived neuronal and glial cells to understand the cellular responses against WNV and JEV infection. It was demonstrated that early IFN-β induction regulated virus replication in glioblastoma tbl98G cells, whereas delayed IFN-β induction resulted in efficient virus replication in neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells. Moreover, the concealing of viral dsRNA in the intracellular membrane resulted in the delayed IFN response in SK-N-SH cells. These results, which showed different IFN responses between human neuronal and glial cells after WNV or JEV infection, are expected to contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms for neuropathology in these viral infections.