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

Early T cell activation induces extensive remodeling of the cellular transcriptome and proteome. 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. We found that human eIF3 interacts with multiple mature miRNAs in activated Jurkat cells, including members of the miR-17-92 cluster. These interactions also occur in primary T cells, as shown by RNA immunoprecipitation followed by qPCR (RIP-qPCR). Knocking out the miR-17-92 cluster led to a delay in ILR2A (CD25) cell surface expression in Jurkat cells and reduced activation-associated cell size increase in primary T cells during early T cell activation. In parallel, we used mass spectrometry analysis of activated primary T cells to identify eIF3-interacting factors, and surprisingly found no evidence of Argonaute binding. Together, these findings provide evidence that eIF3-miRNA interactions may play an unappreciated role in translational control during early T cell activation.