EIF2AK2 and viral infectious disease: Pennisi et al. (2020) reported for the first time that ph-PKR accumulation occurs in different cell lines via a VHS-dependent mechanism and that a lack of VHS RNAse activity affects the negative regulation of ph-PKR mediated by HSV-1. That is, VHS can affect mRNA accumulation during viral infection, allowing HSV-1 to control PKR. In addition, the authors demonstrated for the first time that both serine/threonine kinase proteins pUS3/pUL13 control ph-PKR accumulation during HSV-1 replication and that pUS3 regulates the phosphorylation of PKR by interacting with VHS (Pennisi et al., 2021).