Further research has shown that VP22 enhances the accumulation of gE and gD mRNA in the early stage of HSV-1 infection but has no effect in the late stage of infection; however, deletion of VP22 causes the synthesis of most proteins to cease in the late stage of infection, and this decline in protein synthesis is not related to abnormal apoptosis or increased eIF-2a phosphorylation. This evidence concerns the gene EIF2A and infection.