de Lara Laura Moreno, Parthasarathy Ragav S, Rodriguez-Garcia Marta
Department of Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA.
Immunology Unit, Biomedical Research Centre (CIBM), University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Curr Opin Physiol. 2021 Feb;19:32-38. doi: 10.1016/j.cophys.2020.07.021. Epub 2020 Aug 18.
Women acquire HIV through sexual transmission. Women worldwide represent half of the people living with HIV, but young women in endemic areas are disproportionally affected. Low transmission rates per sexual act in women suggest that local immune protective mechanisms in the genital tract have the potential to prevent infection. However, conditions that induce genital inflammation are known to increase the risk of HIV acquisition. The female genital tract (FGT) is divided into different anatomical compartments with distinct reproductive functions. The immune cells present in each of these compartments are specialized in balancing reproduction and protection against infections, and are the same cells that can encounter and respond to HIV. Understanding the physiological and pathological factors that influence mucosal immune cell presence, susceptibility to HIV-infection and anti-HIV immune responses in the FGT is necessary to develop preventive strategies. Here we review recent advances in our understanding of HIV infection in the human female genital tract, with an emphasis on the characterization of the mucosal cells susceptible to HIV-infection, innate immune responses and mucosal factors that increase genital inflammation and influence susceptibility to HIV acquisition in women.
女性通过性传播感染艾滋病毒。全球感染艾滋病毒的人群中，女性占一半，但流行地区的年轻女性受影响的比例过高。女性每次性行为的传播率较低，这表明生殖道局部的免疫保护机制有预防感染的潜力。然而，已知诱发生殖器炎症的情况会增加感染艾滋病毒的风险。女性生殖道（FGT）分为具有不同生殖功能的不同解剖区域。这些区域中存在的免疫细胞专门负责平衡生殖与抗感染功能，并且正是这些细胞会接触并对艾滋病毒作出反应。了解影响女性生殖道中黏膜免疫细胞的存在、对艾滋病毒感染的易感性以及抗艾滋病毒免疫反应的生理和病理因素，对于制定预防策略至关重要。在此，我们综述了对人类女性生殖道艾滋病毒感染的最新认识进展，重点是对易受艾滋病毒感染的黏膜细胞、先天免疫反应以及增加生殖器炎症并影响女性感染艾滋病毒易感性的黏膜因素的特征描述。
