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
. 2003 Jan;3(1):36-50.
doi: 10.1038/nri980.

Viral mimicry of cytokines, chemokines and their receptors

Antonio Alcami  1
Affiliations
Review

Viral mimicry of cytokines, chemokines and their receptors

Antonio Alcami. Nat Rev Immunol. 2003 Jan.

Abstract

Viruses have evolved elegant mechanisms to evade detection and destruction by the host immune system. One of the evasion strategies that have been adopted by large DNA viruses is to encode homologues of cytokines, chemokines and their receptors--molecules that have a crucial role in control of the immune response. Viruses have captured host genes or evolved genes to target specific immune pathways, and so viral genomes can be regarded as repositories of important information about immune processes, offering us a viral view of the host immune system. The study of viral immunomodulatory proteins might help us to uncover new human genes that control immunity, and their characterization will increase our understanding of not only viral pathogenesis, but also normal immune mechanisms. Moreover, viral proteins indicate strategies of immune modulation that might have therapeutic potential.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources