Table 1.

Microorganisms have developed multiple strategies to hijack the SOCS system in order to inhibit immune defense-signalling pathways.

Microorganisms	SOCS proteins	Species involved	Functions
Bacteria
Chlamydia pneumoniae	SOCS1	Mouse	SOCS1 is induced by infection in a STAT1 and IFNα/β-dependent manner and may protect the host from inflammatory disease (Yang et al., 2008)
Listeria monocytogenes	SOCS3	Human	Decreases IFNγ production (Stoiber et al., 2001)
Lactobacillus rhamnosus	SOCS2/SOCS3	Human	Inhibits JAK2 phosphorylation, alters p38-MAPK signalling (Lee et al., 2010, Latvala et al., 2011)
Mycobacterium spp.	SOCS1/SOCS3	Human/mouse-cattle	Inhibits IL12 production by DCs, inhibits IFNγ signalling (Vazquez et al., 2006, Srivastava et al., 2009, Srivastava et al., 2011). Up-regulation of IL10 and SOCS3, prevent clearance? (Weiss et al., 2005)
Pasteurella multocida	SOCS1	Human	Increases levels of tyrosine kinase JAK2, hyperactivity of JAK/STAT (Hildebrand et al., 2010)
Streptococcus thermophilus	SOCS2/SOCS3	Human	Inhibits JAK2 phosphorylation, alters p38-MAPK signalling (Latvala et al., 2011)
Protozoa
Cryptosporidium parvum	CIS/SOCS4	Human	Regulates STAT3–STAT6 phosphorylation, down regulates miR-98 and let-7 expression (Hu et al., 2009, Hu et al., 2010)
Entamoeba histolytica	SOCS2	Pig	Potentially regulates IFNγ response (Bruel et al., 2010)
Leishmania donovani	SOCS3	Human	Inhibits IFNγ signalling (Nandan and Reiner, 1995, Ray et al., 2000, Bertholet et al., 2003)
Leishmania major	SOCS1	Mouse	Inhibits IFNγ signalling (Alexander et al., 1998, Bullen et al., 2003)
Toxoplasma gondii	CIS/SOCS1/SOCS3	Mouse	Impairs macrophage activation by IFNγ, inhibits the up-regulation of MCH-II and ICAM1 and reduces iNOS induction, impairs IL12 production (Zimmermann et al., 2006, Mirpuri and Yarovinsky, 2012, Stutz et al., 2012)
Virus
Coxsackievirus	SOCS1/SOCS3	Human	Impairs IFNβ and IFNγ, impairs CT-1 signalling through gp130 receptor (Yasukawa et al., 2003b, Yajima et al., 2006)
EBV	SOCS1/SOCS3	Human	Alters NF-κB signal cascade and p38-MAPK signalling (Lo et al., 2006)
HBV	SOCS1/SOCS3	Human	Suppression of STAT1, impairs IFNα signalling by suppression of STAT1 and blocking the TLR9/IRF-7 pathway (Xu et al., 2009, Koeberlein et al., 2010)
HCV	SOCS1/SOCS3/SOCS7	Human	Regulates T and B cell functions, impairs production of IL12, inhibits phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of STAT1, degrades insulin receptor substrate 1 (Bode et al., 2003, Yao et al., 2008, Frazier et al., 2010, Pazienza et al., 2010, Ni et al., 2011, Zhang et al., 2011b)
HIV-1	SOCS1/SOCS2/SOCS3	Human	Impairs IFNγ signalling and IL12 production. Attenuates IFNβ signalling (Ryo et al., 2008, Cheng et al., 2009, Yadav et al., 2009, Akhtar et al., 2010, Miller et al., 2011)
HSV-1	SOCS1/SOCS3	Human/mouse	Inhibits IFNα, IFNβ, and IFNγ signalling (Sato et al., 2000, Yokota et al., 2001, Yokota et al., 2004, Yokota et al., 2005, Li et al., 2011)
IAV	SOCS1/SOCS3	Human/mouse/pig	Inhibits IFNα and IFNβ signalling through RIG-1/MAVS/IFNAR1 pathway (Pothlichet et al., 2008, Jia et al., 2010, Huang et al., 2011). SOCS3 decreases susceptibility of pigs to H5N1 avian influenza virus (Nelli et al., 2012)
MuHV-4	Viral SOCS-box (ORF73)	Mouse	Inhibition of NF-κB pathway (Rodrigues et al., 2009)
PRRSV	SOCS1	Pig	Potentially regulates IFNγ response (Wysocki et al., 2012, Zhou et al., 2011)
RSV	CIS/SOCS1/SOCS3	Human	Impairs type I and type II IFNs inhibiting STAT1 and STAT2 phosphorylation (Zhao et al., 2007, Moore et al., 2008)
SARS Co-V	SOCS3	Human	Enhancement of IL6 signalling by a lower induction of SOCS3 and dysfunction of STAT3 (Okabayashi et al., 2006)
TBEV	SOCS1/SOCS3	Mouse	Potentially limits cytokine response (Mansfield et al., 2010)
WNV	SOCS1/SOCS3	Mouse	Potentially limits cytokine response (Mansfield et al., 2010)