Profiling chemokine-glycoprotein G interactions: Implications for alphaherpesviral immune evasion

The study of immunomodulation by alphaherpesviral proteins targeting the chemokine network remains an area of active research. The article by Viejo-Borbolla et al. evaluates the modulation of chemokines by human HSV-1 and HSV-2. The authors report that secreted recombinant glycoprotein G (gG) of both viruses was able to bind with high affinity to a wide range of CC and CXC chemokines. Interestingly, and in contrast to other viral chemokine binding proteins produced by animal herpesviruses, the investigators found that human herpesvirus-encoded secreted gG1 and secreted gG2 do enhance and not inhibit chemotaxis. This article provides additional insights into the role in immune evasion of alphaherpesviral gGs, but at the same time raises intriguing questions. Among those questions are why and when animal and human alphaherpesviruses diverged in their strategies to manipulate the actions of chemokines and how these apparent differences influence pathogenesis and the final outcome of infection. © 2012 Future Medicine Ltd.