Influenza's tale of tails

摘要

Influenza virus infections are sometimes severe, or even deadly, but most people recover within a few days, helped by their body's immune system. Yet this apparently simple interaction between the virus and its host is deceptive. Influenza viruses are, in fact, masters at circumventing their hosts' defences - they co-opt cellular protein-synthesis pathways to produce viral proteins, for example, and antagonize aspects of the immune response. On page 428 of this issue, Marazzi et al. describe another viral evasion tactic. They show that an influenza protein called NS1 mimics a host-cell histone protein that is involved in regulating gene expression.