HijAkt: The PI3K/Akt Pathway in Virus Replication and Pathogenesis

As obligate parasites of cellular processes, viruses must take over cellular macromolecular machinery. It is also becoming clear that viruses routinely control intracellular signaling pathways through the direct or indirect control of kinases and phosphatases. This control of cellular phosphoproteins is important to promote a variety of viral processes, from control of entry to nuclear function to the stimulation of viral protein synthesis. This review focuses on the takeover of the cellular phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway by a variety of retroviruses, DNA viruses, and RNA viruses, highlighting the functions ascribed to virus activation of PI3K and Akt activity. This review also describes the role that the PI3K/Akt pathway plays in the host response, noting that it that can trigger anti- as well as proviral functions.