How vaccinia virus has evolved to subvert the host immune response

• Published in: Journal of structural biology Vol. 175; no. 2; pp. 127 - 134
• Main Authors: Bahar, Mohammad W., Graham, Stephen C., Chen, Ron A.-J., Cooray, Samantha, Smith, Geoffrey L., Stuart, David I., Grimes, Jonathan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-08-2011; Academic Press
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Biological Evolution; Cell signalling; Chemokines - antagonists & inhibitors; Chemokines - metabolism; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; Immune Evasion; Immunologic Factors - chemistry; Immunologic Factors - metabolism; Innate immunity; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; Poxviridae - genetics; Poxviridae - immunology; Poxviridae - physiology; Protein Conformation; Review; Signal Transduction; Structural virology; Surface receptors; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - antagonists & inhibitors; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - metabolism; Vaccinia virus - genetics; Vaccinia virus - immunology; Vaccinia virus - physiology; Viral Proteins - chemistry; Viral Proteins - metabolism; X-ray crystallography; Bcl-2; ECTV; Cell signalling; Surface receptors; vCCI; GAGs; Innate immunity; TNF; PDB; IFN; X-ray crystallography; GPCRs; RPXV; TLR; IG; TNFR; IKK; Structural virology; IRAKs; eIF2α; CPXV; SPINE; VACV; TRAF6; r.m.s.d; dsDNA
• ISSN: 1047-8477; 1095-8657
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsb.2011.03.010

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites and are some of the most rapidly evolving and diverse pathogens encountered by the host immune system. Large complicated viruses, such as poxviruses, have evolved a plethora of proteins to disrupt host immune signalling in their battle against immune surveillance. Recent X-ray crystallographic analysis of these viral immunomodulators has helped form an emerging picture of the molecular details of virus-host interactions. In this review we consider some of these immune evasion strategies as they apply to poxviruses, from a structural perspective, with specific examples from the European SPINE2-Complexes initiative. Structures of poxvirus immunomodulators reveal the capacity of viruses to mimic and compete against the host immune system, using a diverse range of structural folds that are unique or acquired from their hosts with both enhanced and unexpectedly divergent functions.