title: How vaccinia virus has evolved to subvert the host immune response.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Structural Biology and Oxford Protein Production Facility, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX37BN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mohammad W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Bahar
authors.forename: Stephen C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: Ron A-J
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cooray
authors.forename: Geoffrey L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Stuart
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Grimes
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D018925:Chemokines / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D057131:Immune Evasion; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011212:Poxviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D011487:Protein Conformation; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018925:Chemokines; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D014764:Viral Proteins