[Intracellular transport of Alphaherpesvirinae]

Abstract

The Alphaherpesvirinae sub-family includes viruses primarily associated with cold sores, genital herpes, chicken pox and shingles in humans, but are responsible for several other pathologies and additionally infect many animals. These viruses are large entities that travel through various cellular compartments during their life cycle. As for the transport of cellular cargoes, this involves several budding and fusion steps as well as transport of viral particles along the cytoskeleton. Though the entry of these viruses in cells is generally well understood at the molecular level, the egress of newly assembled viral particles is poorly characterized. Albeit several viral genes have been implicated, their mode of action and the contribution of the cell remain to be clarified. The present review updates our current knowledge of the transport of herpes viruses and pinpoints open questions about the mechanisms they exploit.

Keywords: HSV; PrV; herpes; host-pathogen interactions; transport.