Basic and clinical immunology – 3010. The RNA-binding protein HuR coordinately regulates GATA-3 and Th2 cytokine gene expression in dose dependent manner

Background Naïve CD4+ T cells can differentiate into different subsets. Whereas transcriptional regulation of CD4+ T cells is well studied, posttranscriptional control by RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and microRNAs is poorly understood. CD4+ Th2 mediated diseases such as allergen-induced asthma, are driven by GATA-3, IL-4 and IL-13. The RBP, HuR, has been shown to posttranscriptionally regulate many early response genes, including IL-4 and IL-13. GATA-3 contains AU-rich elements (ARE) in its 3’ untranslated region (UTR) which are binding sites for HuR. We first identified GATA-3, IL-4 and IL-13 as HuR targets using RIP-Chip (RNA immunoprecipitation applied to microarrays). We hypothesized that HuR may be coordinately regulating Th2 differentiation.