GAMES VIRUSES PLAY - A STRATEGIC INITIATIVE AGAINST THE INTERFERON-INDUCED DSRNA ACTIVATED 68,000 MR PROTEIN-KINASE

A number of eukaryotic viruses have devised strategies to down-regulate activity of the interferon induced, double-stranded RNA activated protein kinase, referred to as p68. This control is essential to prevent decreases in protein synthetic rates and possibly to avoid the antiviral effects of interferon. In this review, I will describe primarily the progress made in understanding how influenza virus and poliovirus take advantage of cellular gene products to repress p68 kinase activity. In addition, studies on the inactivation of p68 by viral protein products in the reovirus and vaccinia virus systems will be discussed as will recent structure-function studies aimed at elucidating the molecular mechanisms of kinase activation and repression. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.