NFE2L2 and infection: On the one hand, influenza virus-induced oxidative stress activated the NRF2 antioxidant network, which in turn protected infected cells against virus-induced cellular injury (Kosmider et al., 2012); on the other hand, proteomic analysis identified a phosphorylated form of NRF2 that was not imported into the nucleus after the infection with highly pathogenic influenza virus strains (Simon et al., 2015), suggesting that influenza virus inhibited NRF2 pathway activation.