Viral strategies for immune response evasion

DNA and RNA viruses use complex methods to evade immune cell detection through disruption of the Interferon Signaling Pathway, remodeling of cellular architecture, targeted gene silencing, and recognition protein cleavage.

[1] The human immune system relies on a plethora of cell-cell signaling pathways to transmit information about a cell's health and microenvironment.

These pattern recognition receptors, often localized to either the cytosol or the nucleus, are responsible for notifying infected cells and initiating the secretion of interferon cytokines.

Cytoplasmic PKR is often associated with the ribosome in mammalian cells where it is able to recognize double-stranded and single-stranded RNA and subsequently phosphorylate varies substrates, arresting protein synthesis.

By utilizing architectural rearrangement of the membrane, viruses have developed a method to evade cytoplasm localized pattern recognition proteins such as RIG-I.