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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Dissecting Innate Immune Signaling in Viral Evasion of Cytokine Production
Published on: March 2, 2014
Human herpesvirus 8 encodes an interferon regulatory factor (IRF) homolog that represses IRF-1-mediated transcription
J C Zimring1, S Goodbourn, M K Offermann
1Winship Cancer Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.
Abstract:
Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is the probable viral etiologic agent for Kaposi's sarcoma. The HHV-8 genome encodes viral interferon regulatory factor (vIRF), a gene product that has homology to the IRF family of transcription factors. We demonstrate that vIRF inhibits responses to type I and type II interferons and blocks IRF-1-mediated transcription. vIRF does not compete with IRF-1 for binding to DNA or complex directly with IRF-1. The ability of vIRF to block IRF-1-mediated transcription is independent of the DNA binding domains of both vIRF and IRF-1. These data suggest that vIRF may contribute to viral pathogenesis and cellular transformation by interfering with interferon- and IRF-1-mediated gene expression through a novel mechanism.
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