How poxviruses oppose apoptosis

Poxviruses express a variety of proteins that are able to modulate the inna te cellular apoptotic response triggered by virus infection. Poxviruses are the only DNA viruses to replicate exclusively in the cytoplasm of infected cells, and to date, members of this family have been shown to encode a wid e variety of proteins that block or delay apoptosis, including caspase inhi bitors, other serpins, death domain effecters, bcl-2/CED-9 homologs, modula tors of the FAS/TNF pathway, and inhibitors of PKR. It is predicted that th is list of poxvirus apoptosis modulators will continue to grow in the comin g years and should provide an increasingly rich and diverse family of apopt osis regulators. (C) 1998 Academic Press.