TP53 and viral infectious disease: Excitingly, we have observed that the regulation of apoptosis induction during arenavirus infection is controlled by the phosphorylation of specific pro-apoptotic factors (i.e., Bad and p53 phosphorylation (Figure 1) [17], clearly suggesting a role for kinase activation in this process, and also suggesting other possible links to host cell responses important for the outcome of viral infection and pathogenesis (Figure 5).