A179L, a viral Bcl-2 homologue, targets the core Bcl-2 apoptotic machinery and its upstream BH3 activators with selective binding restrictions for Bid and Noxa - PMC (nih.gov) The apoptosis cascade may be initiated by pathogenic agents such as viruses and is considered as part of the cellular defensive mechanism. Viruses have adapted numerous ways of circumventing this host defensive response, including regulation of endogenous host death receptors and ligands, expression of caspase activation inhibitors, regulation of host Bcl-2 proteins, and expression of viral homologues of Bcl-2 (vBcl-2s) ( Benedict et al., 2002; Polster et al., 2004 ).These viral genes encoding proteins with amino acid sequence similarity to cellular Bcl-2 apoptosis inhibitors have been identified in several viral models including Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) ( Bellows et al., 2002; Henderson et al., 1993 ), human herpes virus 8 (HHV8) ( Cheng et al., 1997 ) and African swine fever virus (ASFV) ( Afonso et al....