The p value of HPIV3-mediated autophagy inhibition

Autophagy, a vesicular pathway involving the lysosomal degradation of cytosolic contents, is frequently hijacked by intracellular pathogens to optimize their infectivity. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Ding et al. (2014) show that human parainfluenza virus exploits autophagy by targeting SNAREs and preventing the SNAP29-Stx17 interaction, an otherwise crucial event in autophagosome-lysosome fusion.