Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jan 26;13(2):179.
doi: 10.3390/v13020179.

Intrinsic Immune Mechanisms Restricting Human Cytomegalovirus Replication

Eva-Maria Schilling  1 , Myriam Scherer  1 , Thomas Stamminger  1
Affiliations
Review

Intrinsic Immune Mechanisms Restricting Human Cytomegalovirus Replication

Eva-Maria Schilling et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Cellular restriction factors (RFs) act as important constitutive innate immune barriers against viruses. In 2006, the promyelocytic leukemia protein was described as the first RF against human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection which is antagonized by the viral immediate early protein IE1. Since then, at least 15 additional RFs against HCMV have been identified, including the chromatin regulatory protein SPOC1, the cytidine deaminase APOBEC3A and the dNTP triphosphohydrolase SAMHD1. These RFs affect distinct steps of the viral replication cycle such as viral entry, gene expression, the synthesis of progeny DNA or egress. This review summarizes our current knowledge on intrinsic immune mechanisms restricting HCMV replication as well as on the viral strategies to counteract the inhibitory effects of RFs. Detailed knowledge on the interplay between host RFs and antagonizing viral factors will be fundamental to develop new approaches to combat HCMV infection.

Keywords: cytomegalovirus; intrinsic immunity; restriction factor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the writing of the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic outline of the strategies used by host RFs (restriction factors) to counteract HCMV (human cytomegalovirus) replication.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bieniasz P.D. Intrinsic immunity: A front-line defense against viral attack. Nat. Immunol. 2004;5:1109–1115. doi: 10.1038/ni1125. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Paludan S.R., Pradeu T., Masters S.L., Mogensen T.H. Constitutive immune mechanisms: Mediators of host defence and immune regulation. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2020;2020:1–14. doi: 10.1038/s41577-020-0391-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blanco-Melo D., Venkatesh S., Bieniasz P.D. Intrinsic cellular defenses against human immunodeficiency viruses. Immunity. 2012;37:399–411. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2012.08.013. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hrecka K., Hao C., Gierszewska M., Swanson S.K., Kesik-Brodacka M., Srivastava S., Florens L., Washburn M.P., Skowronski J. Vpx relieves inhibition of HIV-1 infection of macrophages mediated by the SAMHD1 protein. Nature. 2011;474:658–661. doi: 10.1038/nature10195. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Neil S.J., Zang T., Bieniasz P.D. Tetherin inhibits retrovirus release and is antagonized by HIV-1 Vpu. Nature. 2008;451:425–430. doi: 10.1038/nature06553. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms