Innate imune response against retrovirus

Abstract

Retrovirus are a diverse group of viruses that can be founded in vertebrates. Its biomedical significance is that they are able to infect humans, causing significant health problems. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) generates progressive failure of the immune system and allows opportunistic diseases to settle in advanced stages of the infection. The innate immune response is the first line of defense against the entrance of retrovirus. The result of this response is the induction of type I interferon which establish an antiviral state in the host cell. Recently, research has been widened to different host restriction factors that are part of the innate immune antiviral response which are able to suppress retrovirus replication. In this review we discuss different signaling pathways involved in the function of these factors. We mention, the SAMHD1which determines a cell depletion dNTP pool inhibiting early steps of reverse transcription in cells infected by retrovirus; TREX1 which is considered a restriction factor of the antagonistic host as the absence thereof results in the activation of an interferon response; APOBEC3 that mediates viral restriction mainly by an edition of DNA mechanism; TRIM5α which can form an hexagonal structure above the capsid, which would destabilize the viral core; and finally Tetherin which is able to block the liberation of HIV virions.