Exploited Defense: How Influenza Viruses Take Advantage of Antiviral Signaling Responses

Abstract

Influenza virus infection results in the activation of a variety of intracellular signaling responses. With regard to the function of these responses, the overall picture that has emerged suggests that most of the signaling events are initiated as a cellular response to defend the invading pathogen. While on the one hand influenza viruses have evolved strategies to keep these responses in a tolerable limit, there is accumulating evidence that the virus has also acquired the capability to exploit the remaining activities to ensure efficient replication. Here we will summarize the current knowledge on influenza virus-induced signaling processes and how these pathogens take advantage of some of these activities within the infected cell to support its propagation.

Keywords: :

• apoptosis
• caspase
• influenza virus
• mitogen-associated protein kinase
• nuclear factor-κB
• phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase kinase
• Raf/MAP and ERK kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase
• signal transduction

Acknowlegements

I am thankful for support by different grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FdChI). Furthermore, this work is part of the activities of the VIRGIL European Network of Excellence on Antiviral Drug Resistance supported by a grant (LSHMCT-2004-503359) from the Priority 1 ‘Life Sciences, Genomics and Biotechnology for Health’ program in the 6th Framework Programme of the EU.

Additional information

Funding

I am thankful for support by different grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FdChI). Furthermore, this work is part of the activities of the VIRGIL European Network of Excellence on Antiviral Drug Resistance supported by a grant (LSHMCT-2004-503359) from the Priority 1 ‘Life Sciences, Genomics and Biotechnology for Health’ program in the 6th Framework Programme of the EU.