Scientists from Australia and Britain have discovered a new method which may help to target the HIV virus as it makes its way to infecting cells.
Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, led by Associate professor Till Bocking,
described on Tuesday how the HIV virus forms a protein shell called a capsid, to protect itself from the
hosts defence mechanism as it infects the nucleus of a cell.
Using a new microscope technique developed at UNSW, the team discovered that the HIV virus uses a molecule from
the host cell to strengthen its capsid.
“It’s like a switch, when you bind this molecule, you stabilise the capsid, and release the molecule to open
it up,” Bocking said.
The molecule, called inositol hexakisphosphate, is abundantly present in mammals and has been seen to make the
HIV capsid much stronger, stabilising it for 10 to 20 hours.
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