Human immunodeficiency virus viral structure

Wild C, Oas T, McDanal C, Bolognesi D, Matthews T (1992) A synthetic peptide inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus replication correlation between solution structure and viral inhibition, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89 10537-10541... 

Thiourea compounds have been observed to inhibit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase, a viral enzyme that is responsible for the reverse transcription of the retroviral RNA to proviral DNA. Phenethylthiazoylthiourea (PETT) compounds were discovered as potent inhibitors of HIV type 1 and display certain structure-activity relationships among various substituents in their structure.199 207 Furthermore, thiourea derivatives have been found to be potent and selective viral inhibitors, antifungal and antibacterial compounds.208 215... 

Replication of the human immunodeficiency virus (mV), the causative agent of AIDS, is susceptible to targeted interventions, because several virus-specific metabolic steps occur in infected cells (A). Viral RNA must first be transcribed into DNA, a step catalyzed by viral reverse transcriptase." Double-stranded DNA is incorporated into the host genome with the help of viral inte-grase. Under control by viral DNA, viral replication can then be initiated, with synthesis of viral RNA and proteins (including enzymes such as reverse transcriptase and integrase, and structural proteins such as the matrix protein lining the inside of the viral envelope). 

Accola, M. A. Hoglund, S. GottUnger, H. G. A putative a-helical structure which overlaps the capsid-p2 boundary in the human immunodeficiency virus t5fpe 1 Gag precursor is crucial for viral particle assembly. J. Virol, 1998, 72 2072-2078. 

Despite the diversity in the structures of viruses and the types of host cell that are infected, there are several basic steps in the life cycle of all viruses infection (penetration of the virion or its nucleic acid into the host cell), replication (expression of the viral genome), maturation (assembly of viral components into virions), and release (the emission of new virions from the host cell). Because viruses usually possess only enough genetic information to specify the synthesis of their own components, each type must exploit some of the normal metabolic reactions of its host cell to complete the life cycle. For this reason there are numerous variations on these basic steps. This point can be illustrated by comparing the life cycles of two well-researched viruses the T4 bacteriophage and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 

The human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Is an enveloped retrovirus that buds from the plasma membrane of infected cells In a process driven by viral Gag protein, the major structural component of completed virus particles. Gag protein binds to the plasma membrane of an Infected cell and —4000 Gag molecules polymerize Into a spherical... 

M. Prabu-Jeyabalan, E.A. Nalivaika, N.M. King, C.A. Schiffer, Structural basis for coevolution of a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nucleocapsid-pl cleavage site with a v82a drug-resistant mutation in viral protease,/. Virol. 2004, 78(22), 12446-54. 

The human immunodeficiency virus protease (HIV-PR), an aspartic acid protease, is involved in the processing of viral polyproteins and is therefore essential for the production of new infectious virions. This enzyme is one of the best-characterized macromolecules from the vantage of drug design, with several hundred crystal structures determined to date. Protein crystallography has contributed in many... 

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) spreads from cell to cell. The viral RNA is packaged in the red cone structure and is surrounded by a membrane, part of which comes from the host cell. This picture shows the virus bursting free of the infected helper T-cell. It will then find another cell to bind to and infect. 

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