Figure 1

Immune escape from innate restriction and viral antigen presentation of herpesviruses by macroautophagy. α-, β- and γ-herpesviruses (herpes simplex virus [HSV], human cytomegalovirus [HCMV], Kaposi sarcoma associated herpesvirus [KSHV], herpesvirus saimiri [HVS] and murine herpesvirus 68 [MHV-68]) inhibit macroautophagy by targeting either Atg6/Beclin-1 to prevent formation of the PI3 kinase complex, marking membranes with PI3 for the assembly of the autophagosome forming machinery, or Atg3, which mediates conjugation of the ubiquitin-like molecule Atg8/LC3, involved in autophagosomal membrane elongation and substrate recruitment. Incompleteness of these inhibitory mechanisms allows for viral particle degradation via lysosomal hydrolysis and antigen presentation on MHC class II molecules to CD4⁺ T cells.