Figure 1.

The oral epithelium and virus challenge: the oral epithelium is often an initial site for viral entry and provides a site for viral replication (1) and subsequent shedding via saliva (2) or spread to other cell types in the underlying connective tissue (3), wherein some viruses, such as the herpesvirus family, can establish chronic infections. Inset: Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) establishes lifelong latent infection in neurons of the trigeminal ganglion; gammaherpesviruses Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) establish latent infection in B cells. The figure was created with BioRender.