Cytomegalovirus infected cells

"Cytomegalovirus infected cells" is not considered a valid therapeutic target because it describes a cellular state or condition rather than a specific molecular entity such as a receptor, enzyme, transporter, or other discrete druggable structure. Therapeutic targets require molecular specificity that drugs can directly bind to or inhibit. While therapeutic interventions ultimately aim to eliminate or modify these cells, they achieve this by targeting specific viral proteins (e.g., gH, gL, gB, gM, gN, pp65, pp71) or host cell proteins exploited during infection (e.g., CD74 antigen), or specific cellular processes (e.g., viral DNA packaging machinery, nuclear egress complex). This entry represents a disease phenotype or infection state, not a molecular target itself.