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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Dissecting Innate Immune Signaling in Viral Evasion of Cytokine Production
Published on: March 2, 2014
Evasion of innate immunity by vaccinia virus
1Department of Biochemistry, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. ismar.haga@tcd.ie
Abstract:
Vaccinia virus, a member of the Poxviridae, expresses many proteins involved in immune evasion. In this review, we present a brief characterisation of the virus and its effects on host cells and discuss representative secreted and intracellular proteins expressed by vaccinia virus that are involved in modulation of innate immunity. These proteins target different aspects of the innate response by binding cytokines and interferons, inhibiting cytokine synthesis, opposing apoptosis or interfering with different signalling pathways, including those triggered by interferons and toll-like receptors.
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