How viruses evade host responses

Humans have evolved a highly complex defence system to combat a wide variety of pathogens. Among the pathogens, developing a remedy for most of the viral infections still remains a great challenge as viruses evolve very rapidly as well as produce a variety of proteins. These features provide viruses with strategies to evade almost any hurdle imposed by the host defences to block their replication. It is important to understand the mechanisms of virus-host interactions, as this information can prove useful in symptomatic treatment of viral infections and aid in the design of antiviral vaccines. Further, since viruses rely almost entirely on the host cell machinery for their propagation, these studies educate us about our own cells and the basic mechanisms of gene expression and immunity.