Nature Immunology5, 1109 - 1115 (2004)
Published online: 20 October 2004; | doi:10.1038/ni1125
Intrinsic immunity: a front-line defense against viral attack
Paul D Bieniasz
Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York, New York 10016, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Paul D Bieniasz pbienias@adarc.org
In addition to the conventional innate and acquired immune responses, complex organisms have evolved an array of dominant, constitutively expressed genes that suppress or prevent viral infections. Two major cellular defenses against infection by retroviruses are the Fv1 and TRIM5 class of inhibitors that target incoming retroviral capsids and the APOBEC3 class of cytidine deaminases that hypermutate and destabilize retroviral genomes. Additional, less well characterized activities also inhibit viral replication. Here, the present understanding of these 'intrinsic' immune mechanisms is reviewed and their role in protection from retroviral infection is discussed.
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