**8. ABCA1 in Infectious Diseases**

The ABCA1 protein plays an important role in the development of some infectious diseases because of its role in cholesterol metabolism [222]. ABCA1 expression can be altered by some viruses, parasites and bacteria including components of the intestinal microbiota, [1,155,212,223–226], and some authors have proposed ABCA1 as a possible therapeutic target for these infections [212,227,228]. The entry and exit sites of some viral agents such as the human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus and cytomegalovirus occur in cholesterol, phospholipid and transporter enriched microdomains called lipid rafts [227,229–231]. The interaction of ABCA1 with these viruses alters lipid metabolism and intracellular signaling pathways [225,231,232].
