Viral exploitation and subversion of the immune system through chemokine mimicry

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Abstract
The chemokine superfamily of leukocyte chemo-attractants coordinates development and deploy-ment of the immune system by signaling through a family of G protein–coupled receptors. The importance of this system to antimicrobial host defense has been supported by the discovery of numerous herpesviruses and poxviruses that encode chemokine mimics able to block chemo-kine action. However, specific herpesviruses and lentiviruses can also exploit the immune system through chemokine mimicry, for example, to facilitate viral dissemination or, as in the case of HIV-1, to directly infect leukocyte target cells. The study of viral mimicry of chemokines and chemokine receptors is providing important new concepts in viral immunopathogenesis, new anti-inflammatory drug leads and new targets and concepts for antiviral drug and vaccine development.