American and South African scientists working at the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa have discovered how the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) exhausts killer T cells that would otherwise attack the virus. The researchers found that HIV can simply turn off fully functional T cells by flipping a molecula
Phosphatidylinositol-(4,5)-bisphosphate binds the HIV-1 matrix protein in an extended conformation, with the 1 -fatty acid inserted in the lipid bilayer and the 2 -chain sequestered by the protein. The model explains how retroviral Gag proteins may be specifically targeted to PI(4,5)P2-enriched lipid rafts on the plasm
Howard Hughes Medical Institute - February 28, 2006
HHMI predoctoral fellow: Alexander L. Perryman, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology; HHMI investigator: J. Andrew McCammon, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego
For more than a year, researchers watched patiently as a few computer-simulated HIV protease molecules squirmed into more than 15,000 slightly different shapes. In real time, this contortion takes only a fraction of a second. In the end, however, this suspended animation paid off, as the simulations uncovered a potenti
Howard Hughes Medical Institute - February 10, 2006
Karolin Luger, HHMI Investigator
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered how the virus that has a causative role in Kaposi s sarcoma, a cancer associated with HIV infection, hitches a ride inside cells to ensure its survival. The researchers said their findings promise greater understanding of how the virus, Kaposi s sarcoma-associ
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