HSV-1 and the Host Cell: A Story of Global Conspiracies, Plots and Counterplots
Bernard Roizman and Brunella Taddeo
from: Alpha Herpesviruses: Molecular and Cellular Biology (Edited by: R. M. Sandri-Goldin). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2006)
Abstract
Studies on viral gene function revealed that infected cells mount an unsuccessful multi-layered defense that includes attempts to silence the viral genome at early stages of infection, activation of interferon pathways, turnover of cellular proteins required by the virus, and finally attempts to commit suicide through programmed cell death to salvage the infected host. The surprising finding is that multiple viral functions expressed by different viral proteins or domains thereof target the same cellular pathways to render them dysfunctional. The grand design of viral conquest of the host cell is to sequester and redirect cellular proteins to (i) preclude the infected cells from signaling it status to the environment or be the recipient of signals from the environment, (ii) disrupt the interferon defense mechanisms, and (iii) perform novel functions required by the virus. Considering that current knowledge is based on analyses of the functions of a few viral proteins, a wealth of data awaits to be discovered through analyses of the many multifunctional proteins expressed by virus read more ...
