Autophagy is an evolutionary conserved catabolic process devoted to the removal of unnecessary and harmful cellular components. In its general form, autophagy governs cellular lifecycle through the formation of double membrane vesicles, termed autophagosomes, that enwrap and deliver unwanted intracellular components to lysosomes. In addition to this omniscient role, forms of selective autophagy, relying on specialized receptors for cargo recognition, exert fine-tuned control over cellular homeostasis. In this regard, xenophagy plays a pivotal role in restricting the replication of intracellular pathogens, thus acting as an ancient innate defense system against infections. Recently, selective autophagy of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), more simply ER-phagy, has been uncovered as a critical mechanism governing ER network shape and function. Six ER-resident proteins have been characterized as ER-phagy receptors and their orchestrated function enables ER homeostasis and turnover overtime. Unfortunately, ER is also the preferred site for viral replication and several viruses hijack ER machinery for their needs. Thus, it is not surprising that some ER-phagy receptors can act to counteract viral replication and minimize the spread of infection throughout the organism. On the other hand, evolutionary pressure has armed pathogens with strategies to evade and subvert xenophagy and ER-phagy. Although ER-phagy biology is still in its infancy, the present review aims to summarize recent ER-phagy literature, with a special focus on its role in counteracting viral infections. Moreover, we aim to offer some hints for future targeted approaches to counteract host-pathogen interactions by modulating xenophagy and ER-phagy pathways.

自噬是一种进化上保守的分解代谢过程，致力于去除不必要和有害的细胞成分。在其一般形式中，自噬通过形成双层膜囊泡（称为自噬体）来控制细胞的生命周期，该膜囊泡将不需要的细胞内组分包裹并向溶酶体传递。除了这种无所不知的作用外，选择性自噬的形式依赖于专门的受体进行货物识别，从而对细胞稳态进行了微调的控制。在这方面，异种吞噬在限制细胞内病原体的复制中起着举足轻重的作用，因此是抵抗感染的古老先天防御系统。最近，已经发现内质网（ER）的选择性自噬，更简单的说是ER吞噬，是控制ER网络形状和功能的关键机制。六个内质网驻留蛋白被表征为内质网吞噬受体，它们的协调功能使内质网稳态和超时转换成为可能。不幸的是，ER还是病毒复制的首选站点，几种病毒劫持了ER机器以满足他们的需求。因此，不足为奇的是，某些ER吞噬受体可以起到抵消病毒复制并使感染在整个生物体内传播的作用最小化的作用。另一方面，进化压力使病原体具有逃避和破坏异种和ER吞噬的策略。尽管ER-噬菌体生物学仍处于起步阶段，但本综述旨在总结最近的ER-噬菌体文献，并特别关注其在抵抗病毒感染中的作用。此外，