Herpes simplex viruses (HSVs) are able to hijack the host-cell IB kinase (IKK)/NF-B pathway, which regulates critical cell functions from apoptosis to inflammatory responses; however, the molecular mechanisms involved and the outcome of the signaling dysregulation on the host-virus interaction are mostly unknown. Here we show that in human keratinocytes HSV-1 attains a sophisticated control of the IKK/NF-B pathway, inducing two distinct temporally controlled waves of IKK activity and disrupting the NF-B autoregulatory mechanism. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation we demonstrate that dysregulation of the NF-B-response is mediated by a virus-induced block of NF-B recruitment to the promoter of the IB␣ gene, encoding the main NF-B-inhibitor. We also show that HSV-1 redirects NF-B recruitment to the promoter of ICP0, an immediate-early viral gene with a key role in promoting virus replication. The results reveal a new level of control of cellular functions by invading viruses and suggest that persistent NF-B activation in HSV-1-infected cells, rather than being a host response to the virus, may play a positive role in promoting efficient viral replication.Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) 4 represents a prototype for understanding the fundamental replication mechanisms of herpesviruses, a large family of medically important double-stranded DNA viruses. As other members of the family, HSV-1 can establish productive and latent infections (1). During productive infection HSV-1 efficiently redirects the host transcriptional machinery to express its own genes in a tightly regulated temporal cascade, consisting of the sequential expression of three gene classes: the immediate-early (IE), delayedearly (DE) and late (L) genes. The five IE genes are expressed shortly after entry into the host cell, and the resulting IE proteins (infected cell proteins ICP-0, -4, -22, -27, and -47) are essential for the subsequent temporally controlled expression of DE genes, the majority of which encode proteins involved in viral DNA replication, as well as of later L genes, which encode predominantly structural proteins. In particular, the multifunctional phosphoprotein ICP0 acts as a strong activator of all classes of HSV-1 genes, as well as of other eukaryotic genes (1). The molecular mechanism responsible for ICP0 transactivating activity is not yet understood. No specific DNA-binding sequence for ICP0 could be identified, and the transactivating activity seems to be dependent on one or more of the different functions of the ICP0 protein (2). The facts that ICP0-negative mutants grow poorly in most tissue systems and are reactivation-impaired indicate that adequate ICP0 activity confers a growth advantage and is essential to promote initiation of the lyticphase transcriptional events (1).Several distinct cis-acting elements are important for ICP0 expression during productive infection (3). In addition to the transactivating activity of the virion VP16 protein-induced complex, ICP0 expression can be modulated by a variety of host-trans...