The family Picornaviridae comprises a large number of viruses that cause disease in broad spectrum of hosts, which have posed serious public health concerns worldwide and led to significant economic burden. A comprehensive understanding of the virus-host interactions during
picornavirus infections will help to prevent and cure these diseases. Upon
picornavirus infection, host pathogen recognition receptors (
PRRs) sense
viral RNA to activate host innate immune responses. The activated
PRRs initiate signal transduction through a series of adaptor
proteins, which leads to activation of several
kinases and
transcription factors, and contributes to the consequent expression of
interferons (IFNs), IFN-inducible
antiviral genes, as well as various inflammatory
cytokines and
chemokines. In contrast, to maintain viral replication and spread, picornaviruses have evolved several elegant strategies to block innate immune signaling and hinder host
antiviral response. In this review, we will summarize the recent progress of how the members of family Picornaviridae counteract host immune response through evasion of
PRRs detection, blocking activation of adaptor molecules and
kinases, disrupting
transcription factors, as well as counteraction of
antiviral restriction factors. Such knowledge of immune evasion will help us better understand the pathogenesis of picornaviruses, and provide insights into developing
antiviral strategies and improvement of
vaccines.