Human Cytomegalovirus Protein UL94 Targets MITA to Evade the Antiviral Immune Response
Hong-Mei Zou, Zhe-Fu Huang, Yan Yang, Wei‐Wei Luo, Suyun Wang, Min‐Hua Luo, Yu-Zhi Fu, Yan‐Yi Wang
Abstract
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a large double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) virus, encodes more than 200 viral proteins. HCMV infection causes irreversible abnormalities of the central nervous system in newborns and severe syndromes in organ transplantation patients or AIDS patients. It has been demonstrated that HCMV has evolved multiple immune evasion strategies to establish latent infection. Previous studies pay more attention to the mechanism by which HCMV evades immune response in the early phase of infection. In this study, we identified UL94 as a negative regulator of the innate immune response, which functions in the late phase of HCMV infection.