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BookmarkScienceDaily (May 6, 2007) — Scientists provide new information about how HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, enters the nucleus of an infected cell. This study could help devise a new way to fight AIDS.
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When HIV infects a cell, it carries its DNA into the nucleus of the cell, then the viral DNA mixes with the cell's DNA. The combined DNA produces proteins that make new viruses, which spread to neighboring cells. The mechanism by which HIV's DNA enters the nucleus is not yet fully understood and may offer new ways to fight HIV.
Xiaojian Yao and colleagues studied how various cellular proteins help the virus enter the infected cell's nucleus. They revealed new roles for these proteins that had not been fully established. The study also showed that by silencing genes that produce one of these proteins, HIV was three times less infectious than when the protein was present.
Article: "Interaction of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integrase with Cellular Nuclear Import Receptor Importin 7 and its Impact on Viral Replication" by Zhujun Ao, Guanyou Huang, Han Yao, Zaikun Xu, Meaghan Labine, Alan W. Cochrane, and Xiaojian Yao
