Viral immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM)-mediated signaling in cell transformation and cancer

摘要

Viruses frequently co-opt host cell pathways to enhance their propagation or to enable latent infection. Certain receptors expressed by hematopoietic cells have immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) in their cytoplasmic domains that initiate cellular activation, proliferation and differentiation. Some viruses have evolved, or acquired from their host, genes that encode ITAM-bearing proteins. These ITAM-bearing viral proteins have been implicated in cellular transformation in virus-infected hematopoietic cells, typically B cells, but also in non-hematopoietic tissues--including endothelial and epithelial cells.