Bringing Balance: Immune Interactions Regulating Murine Gammaherpesvirus 68 Latency

Gammaherpesviruses constitute the chief virus family that is capable of exhibiting true latency. Latency allows the viral genome to override host immune responses and persist despite unfavorable conditions. Due to the species specificity of gammaherpesviruses, murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68), presents by far the most advanced system for analyzing latency and the impact of the immune response to viral latency in an intact host.

Recent publications show that MHV68 utilizes components of the host immune response to promote the establishment of latency. Further, other immune factors, which are classically antiviral, were found to differentially function to promote or restrict MHV68 latency depending on anatomical location or in cell-intrinsic manner. These observations highlight the involvement of varied underlying mechanistic pathways through which host immune factors may interact with MHV68 to regulate latency.

Throughout this review, we highlight different ways through which the host immune response both promotes and restricts MHV68 latency.