The innate immune system and HIV pathogenesis.

Innate immunity represents the first line of defense against microbial infections. The innate immune system is activated by conserved structures present on most pathogens and profoundly regulates subsequent adaptive immune responses. HIV is notorious for evading and disrupting the immune system. Although HIV directly targets and gradually destroys the adaptive immunity, it has become clear that the virus also perturbs the components of the innate immune system. In this paper, we review the role of two innate lymphocyte subsets, natural killer and natural killer T cells, that are disrupted during HIV infection.