title: HIV-1, interferon and the interferon regulatory factor system: an interplay between induction, antiviral responses and viral evasion.
abstract: Thirty years after the first isolation of the etiological agent of AIDS, the virus HIV-1 is still a major threat worldwide with millions of individuals currently infected. Although current combination therapies allow viral replication to be controlled, HIV-1 is not eradicated and persists in drug- and immune system-insensitive reservoirs and a cure is still lacking. Pathogens such as HIV-1 that cause chronic infections are able to adapt to the host in a manner that ensures long term residence and survival, via the evolution of numerous mechanisms that evade various aspects of the innate and adaptive immune response. One such mechanism is targeted to members of the interferon (IFN) regulatory factor (IRF) family of proteins. These transcription factors regulate a variety of biological processes including interferon induction, immune cell activation and downstream pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). HIV-1 renders IRFs harmless and hijacks them to its own advantage in order to facilitate its replication and evasion of immune responses. Type I interferon (IFN), the canonical antiviral innate response, can be induced in both acute and chronic HIV-1 infection in vivo, but in the majority of individuals this initial response is not protective and can contribute to disease progression. Type I IFN expression is largely inhibited in T cells and macrophages in order to successfully establish productive infection, whereas sustained IFN production by plasmacytoid dendritic cells is considered an important source of chronic immune activation, a hallmark to AIDS progression.
authors: Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-Mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299, Rome 00161, Italy.
authors: Giulia
authors: G
authors: Marsili
authors: Anna Lisa
authors: AL
authors: Remoli
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Sgarbanti
authors: Edvige
authors: E
authors: Perrotti
authors: Alessandra
authors: A
authors: Fragale
authors: Angela
authors: A
authors: Battistini
mesh_terms: D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D057131:Immune Evasion / Q000276:immunology; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology; D050835:Interferon Regulatory Factors / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D007372:Interferons / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D018448:Models, Immunological; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D050835:Interferon Regulatory Factors; D007372:Interferons