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Published online before print April 3, 2008

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© by The Society for Leukocyte Biology
Journal of Leukocyte Biology, doi:10.1189/jlb.0907649

Received for publication September 24, 2007.
Revised February 25, 2008.
Accepted for publication February 26, 2008.

Article

Antiviral NK cell responses in HIV infection: II. viral strategies for evasion and lessons for immunotherapy and vaccination

Laboratory of Innate Immunity, Center of Research Ste Justine Hospital, and Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

^@ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ali.ahmad{at}recherche-ste-justine.qc.ca.

	Abstract

As is the case in other viral infections, humans respond to HIV infection by activating their NK cells. However, the virus uses several strategies to neutralize and evade the host’s NK cell responses. Consequently, it is not surprising that NK cell functions become compromised in HIV-infected individuals in early stages of the infection. The compromised NK cell functions also adversely affect several aspects of the host’s antiviral adaptive immune responses. Researchers have made significant progress in understanding how HIV counters NK cell responses of the host. This knowledge has opened new avenues for immunotherapy and vaccination against this infection. In the first part of this review article, we gave an overview of our current knowledge of NK cell biology and discussed how the genes encoding NK cell receptors and their ligands determine innate genetic resistance/susceptibilty of humans against HIV infections and AIDS. In this second part, we discuss NK cell responses, viral strategies to counter these responses, and finally, their implications for anti-HIV immunotherapy and vaccination.

Key Words: ADCC • AIDS • CD94/NKG2 • chemokines • cytokines • HIV-1 • HLA • KIR • KIR haplotypes • MHC class I • MICA • MICB • NK cell receptors • NKG2D • ULBP