An interesting scenario is the possible regulation of apoptosis by host proteins loaded onto viral particles. Apoptosis is regulated both negatively and positively by several viruses (Teodoro and Branton, 1997; Goodkin et al., 2004) , presumably to insure their survival at the early stages of the infection but their efficient release later on. Conceptually, the presence of anti-apoptotic proteins in herpes particles might thus provide a mean to quickly evade death upon entry, while the presence of pro-apoptotic proteins on newly assembled/enveloped viral particles may trigger or stimulate their extracellular release. Only further work will resolve this open question.