Acetylation in Viral Infection and Disease

Viruses are acellular organisms and part of our ecosystem but exist at the interface of living and non-living. Furthermore, viruses are obligate intracellular parasites hence require the machinery of other organisms to multiply. Consequently, most viral infections result into a viral disease. Broadly, viruses cause two types of infection-acute and persistent (latent and chronic), in humans and other mammals that could lead to various lethal and non-lethal viral diseases. Acetylation is now known to be a ubiquitous protein (and nucleic acid) modification and is critical for cellular metabolism. An imbalance in acetylation has been associated with various cancers and diseases in humans. Likewise, the association of acetylation with viral infection and disease was observed soon after its discovery in twentieth century. Now, the literature accumulated in this space shows that acetylation promotes the infection of many viruses causing both acute and persistent infections. Furthermore, reduction in the acetylation level reduces viral clearance from the host and promotes viral persistency. The latter can be interrupted by increasing the acetylation level by using deacetylase inhibitors. Indeed, this approach has become a therapeutic tool to treat and clear the persistent viral infections as well as boost the oncolytic virus-mediated cancer therapy.