Immune Regulation and Evasion of Mammalian Host Cell Immunity During Viral Infection

Abstract

The mammalian host immune system has wide array of defence mechanisms against viral infections. Depending on host immunity and the extent of viral persistence, either the host immune cells might clear/restrict the viral load and disease progression or the virus might evade host immunity by down regulating host immune effector response(s). Viral antigen processing and presentation in the host cells through major histocompatibility complex (MHC) elicit subsequent anti-viral effector T cell response(s). However, modulation of such response(s) might generate one of the important viral immune evasion strategies. Viral peptides are mostly generated by proteolytic cleavage in the cytosol of the infected host cells. CD8+ T lymphocytes play critical role in the detection of viral infection by recognizing these peptides displayed at the plasma membrane by MHC-I molecules. The present review summarises the current knowledge on the regulation of mammalian host innate and adaptive immune components, which are operative in defence mechanisms against viral infections and the variety of strategies that viruses have evolved to escape host cell immunity. The understanding of viral immune evasion strategies is important for designing anti-viral immunotherapies.