eIF3 interactions with miRNAs involved in translational control of early T cell activation

We previously showed using a transcriptome-wide crosslinking approach that human translation initiation factor eIF3 directly interacts with a select set of immune-related mRNAs shortly after T cell activation. We also found that eIF3 binding to the 3’-untranslated regions (3’-UTRs) of the TCRA and TCRB mRNAs encoding the T cell receptor alpha and beta subunits dynamically regulates a burst in their translation.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) add an additional layer of regulation by fine-tuning both mRNA and protein expression. Although miRNA expression is dynamically regulated during T cell activation, how miRNAs interact with core regulatory pathways in primary T cells remains poorly understood. Here, we reexamined the eIF3-RNA crosslinking experiments in Jurkat cells and probed eIF3 function to investigate miRNA-mediated translational regulation during T cell activation.