New study reveals how HIV enters cell nucleus
The discovery, reported in the journal PLOS Pathogens , could lead to effective new drugs to treat HIV/AIDS, said Edward M. Campbell, PhD, corresponding author of the study. Campbell is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. HIV infects and kills immune system cells, including T cells and macrophages. This cripples the immune system, making the patient vulnerable to common bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that usually don't cause problems in people with healthy immune systems. Once HIV enters a cell, it has to find a way to get inside the nucleus, the compartment that contains the cell's DNA. Many related viruses do this by waiting until the cell divides, when the protective membrane surrounding the nucleus breaks down. But HIV has the insidious ability to enter the nucleus in a non-dividing cell with an intact nuclear membrane. (This membrane also is known as the nuclear ...