The Ins and Outs of HIV

摘要

Researchers first isolated HIV 27 years ago and arguably know more about how it behaves than they do any other virus. But presentations here challenged the most basic notions of how HIV enters and exits cells.rnAs landmark studies first revealed in 1996, HIV initiates an infection by binding to two receptors on the cell surface (Science, 10 May 1996, p. 809). But how that bound HIV then penetrates the cell membrane has remained murky. Many researchers believed that HIV sticks a protein into the cell membrane and then directly fuses with it. But HIV-and other viruses that have an outer coat made from a mishmash of its own proteins and cellular membrane-can enter via endocytosis.