Herpes Simplex Virus-1 Fine-Tunes Host’s Autophagic Response to Infection: A Comprehensive Analysis in Productive Infection Models

Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection causes severe conditions, with serious complications, including corneal blindness from uncontrolled ocular infections. An important cellular defense mechanism against HSV-1 infection is autophagy. The autophagic response of the host cell was suggested to be regulated by HSV-1. In this study, we performed a detailed analysis of autophagy in multiple HSV-1-targeted cell types, and under various infection conditions that recapitulate a productive infection model. We found that autophagy was slightly inhibited in one cell type, while in other cell types autophagy maintained its basal levels mostly unchanged during productive infection. This study refines the concept of HSV-1-mediated autophagy regulation to imply either inhibition, or prevention of activation, of the innate immune pathway.