Viral tropism

A viral tropism is the specifity of a vims for particular host tissues and cells. 

V. N. Krasnykh, G. V. Mikheeva, J. T. Douglas, and D. T. Curiel, Generation of recombinant adenovirus vectors with modified fibers for altering viral tropism, J. Virol. 70 6839 (1996). 

There are two known strains of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2 (Table 15.7). HIV-1 is the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. The term viral tropism refers to the type of cell HIV infects. HIV primarily infects vital cells in the human immune system, such as T-helper cells (specifically CD4-I- T-cells), macrophages and dendritic cells. HIV-1... 

One limitation to the use of CCR5 antagonists in HIV therapy is the need to carry out expensive viral tropism testing due to the ineffectiveness of these agents against X4-tropic viruses. This has already been highlighted in the dinical studies with maraviroc in which a small percentage of patients underwent a tropism shift in their... 

Tan, P. H., Xue, S. A., Wei, B., Holler, A., Voss, R. H., and George, A. J. 2007. Changing viral tropism using immimoliposomes alters the stability of gene expression Implications for viral vector design. Molecular Medicine, 13,216-226. 

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