Ectromelia virus suppresses expression of cathepsins and cystatins in conventional dendritic cells to efficiently execute the replication process.

Taken together, our results indicate that infection of cDCs with ECTV suppresses cathepsins and cystatins, and alters their cellular distribution which impairs the cDC function. We propose this as an additional viral strategy to escape immune responses, enabling the virus to replicate effectively in infected cells.