PANX1 and HIV infectious disease: Although Panx1 was originally characterized by its activation by membrane depolarization [17], subsequent studies revealed that Panx1 channels can be activated by diverse stimuli including shear stress and hypoosmotic swelling [18,19], receptor mediated pathways (NMDA, P2X7, alpha-adrenergic agonists) and thromboxane [19,20,21,22,23], high extracellular K+ [24] and intracellular calcium levels [19], HIV infection [25], and caspase mediated C-tail cleavage [26].