Monocytes and their Role in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Pathogenesis

Monocytes play several significant immunological roles during HIV infection. The phenotypic pliability and the cellular differentiation ability monocytes possess are crucial to the ways they combat infections and control inflammatory processes. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the importance of monocytes in HIV-1 infection and pathogenesis. Moreover, this review also provides newly emerging data on how HIV leads to the subversion and manipulation of monocyte transcriptome and proteome, which may have implications in understanding the genomic and proteomic basis of monocyte function and its interaction with HIV.