Here, we found HCMV infection has little effect on the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of RIPK3 but traps unphosphorylated MLKL within the nucleus of infected monocytes, preventing necroptosis (Fig. 5), which is consistent with a previous report demonstrating that pharmacological inhibition of the nuclear export machinery leads to the accumulation of MLKL in the nucleus and a reduction in cell death (61). Here, MLKL is linked to cytomegalovirus infection.