Mastering Death: The Roles of Viral Bcl-2 in dsDNA Viruses

Chathura D. Suraweera, Benjamin Espinoza, Mark G. Hinds*, Marc Kvansakul*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Proteins of the Bcl-2 family regulate cellular fate via multiple mechanisms including apoptosis, autophagy, senescence, metabolism, inflammation, redox homeostasis, and calcium flux. There are several regulated cell death (RCD) pathways, including apoptosis and autophagy, that use distinct molecular mechanisms to elicit the death response. However, the same proteins/genes may be deployed in multiple biochemical pathways. In apoptosis, Bcl-2 proteins control the integrity of the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) by regulating the formation of pores in the MOM and apoptotic cell death. A number of prosurvival genes populate the genomes of viruses including those of the pro-survival Bcl-2 family. Viral Bcl-2 proteins are sequence and structural homologs of their cellular counterparts and interact with cellular proteins in apoptotic and autophagic pathways, potentially allowing them to modulate these pathways and determine cellular fate.

Original languageEnglish
Article number879
Number of pages22
JournalViruses
Volume16
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 May 2024

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