Phosphorylation profiling and the understanding of viral pathogenesis

Viruses are dependent on their host cell for replication; this leads to an intimate interaction between the virus and the host. Viruses must evade the immune response, while simultaneously ensuring that the cellular processes required for replication are maintained. To this end, virus infection results in many changes in host-cell signalling networks, some subtle and some extreme. Many of these changes in signalling are at the level of protein phosphorylation. In this review, we discuss how understanding viral disease at the level of host signalling allows the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis to be delineated, and how this understanding may lead to the development of novel therapeutics. In particular, we focus on the role of phosphorylation in these signalling networks.