EN
Tetraspanins are a superfamily of surface membrane proteins characterized by their four transmembrane domains. They associate laterally with their partner proteins or with each other, and form large integrated signaling complexes or tetraspanin enriched microdomains (TEMs). Consequently, those proteins are involved in the coordination of many biological processes, including cell adhesion, migration and proliferation. Tetraspanins also play a prominent role in the pathogenesis of viral infectious diseases. Viruses can exploit tetraspanins for the modulation of the host immune response and/or for subsequent immune evasion. Thus tetraspanins are attractive novel antiviral therapeutic targets, which may provides a novel strategy to inhibit critical processes of viral infection. This review summarizes the involvement of tetraspanins in viral life cycles, including adsorption, entry, viral trafficking, fusion events and viral release.