Herpesviruses and Autophagy: Catch Me If You Can!

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cellular degradation pathway involving the digestion of intracellular components via the lysosomal pathway. The autophagic pathway constitutively maintains cellular homeostasis by recycling cytoplasmic organelles and proteins, but it is also stimulated by environmental stress conditions, such as starvation, oxidative stress, and the accumulation of misfolded proteins. It also acts as a cellular defense mechanism against microorganisms by contributing to both the innate and adaptive immunity, and by eliminating intracellular pathogens (xenophagy). There is growing evidence that host cells try to control Herpesvirus infections by activating the autophagic machinery. However, it is well-known that Herpesviruses are smart pathogens and several, such as HSV-1, HCMV and HHV-8, are known to have developed numerous defense strategies for evading the host’s immune response. Inhibition of the antiviral autophagic mechanism has also been reported. Autophagy has also been shown to enhance the major histocompatibility complex presentation of at least two viral proteins, the EBV-encoded EBNA-1 and the HSV-1 encoded gB. In this review, we present an overview of recent advances in our understanding of the complex interplay between autophagy and Herpesviruses.