Role of Signaling Pathways in the Viral Life Cycle 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

Signal transduction pathways control crucial cellular processes, including proliferation, differentiation, metabolism, gene expression, cell survival, and immune responses. Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that hijack the host cell machinery for their own benefit. Therefore, it is not surprising that viruses manipulate signaling pathways to sustain different aspects of their life cycle such as viral genome replication, viral gene expression, controlling inflammation, and evading immune surveillance. Oncolytic viruses engage different signaling pathways to induce tumorigenesis by suppressing apoptosis, triggering cell cycle progression, affecting DNA damage response, and promoting angiogenesis and migration. The ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 once again illustrates how viruses manipulate signaling pathways and underscores that targeting signaling pathways may be used as an approach to fight viral infections.  

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences focuses on how viruses exploit signaling pathways for their own purpose. This Special Issue accepts research articles, review articles, as well as short communications that highlight the role of signaling pathways in all aspects of the viral life cycle, but also how viruses manipulate signaling pathways to escape the immune system and to cause pathogenesis.

Prof. Ugo Moens
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.