Role of Rab GTPases in HSV-1 infection: Molecular understanding of viral maturation and egress

Most enveloped viruses exploit complex cellular pathways for assembly and egress from the host cell, and the large DNA virus Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) makes no exception, hijacking several cellular transport pathways for its glycoprotein trafficking and maturation, as well as for viral morphogenesis and egress according to the envelopment, de-envelopment and re-envelopment model. Importantly Rab GTPases, widely distributed master regulators of intracellular membrane trafficking pathways, have recently being tightly implicated in such process. Indeed, siRNA-mediated genetic ablation of specific Rab proteins differently affected HSV-1 production, suggesting a complex role of different Rab proteins in HSV-1 life cycle. In this review, we discuss how different Rabs can regulate HSV-1 assembly/egress and the potential therapeutic applications of such findings for the management of HSV-1 infections.