Herpesviruses: Interfering innate immunity by targeting viral sensing and interferon pathways

Type I-interferon (IFN-I) induction pathway is one of the most commonly stimulated signaling pathways in response to viral infection. During viral infection this pathway is stimulated by various pattern-recognition receptors, which recognize different pathogen-associated molecular patterns. The pathways stimulated by different pattern-recognition receptors merge into common transcription factors IRF3 and IRF7, lead to the production of IFN-I. The secreted IFN-I stimulates JAK-STAT pathway leading to induction of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). The ISGs along with IFN-I create antiviral state to eliminate the virus from host. HHV infection enhances IFN-I-mediated innate antiviral response during both de novo infection and lytic reactivation from latency. However, HHV developed various molecular strategies to evade the sudden upsurge of the IFN-I and IFN-I-mediated antiviral response to establish a successful infection. Here, we focus on IFN-I induction and signaling pathways induced by three representative HHVs from each sub-family of HHV and strategies acquired by these HHVs to subvert the induction of IFN-I and ISGs to evade the host innate immunity. These fundamental understanding provides the clue for viral targets for pharmacological manipulation to develop potential therapeutics for broad subtypes of HHVs.