| Description |
HIV, the causative agent of AIDS infects human T-cells, macrophages and dendritic cells causing continuous cell depletion and severe immunodeficiency. The virus is an enveloped particle of ca 150nm diameter that is released from infected cells by assembly and budding at the plasma membrane. Virus formation is orchestrated by the main structural polyprotein, which recruits all other viral components and organizes a membrane subdomain. Besides viral components, HIV morphogenesis requires host cell factors, but is also inhibited by cellular factors. HIV is initially released as an immature, non-infectious particle that undergoes proteolytic processing and subsequent conformational rearrangements of its outer and inner proteins to acquire infectivity. In this lecture, I will discuss key aspects of virus assembly, release, maturation and host cell entry, which undergo a kinetically and structurally regulated path. Interfering with these events blocks viral infectivity, while plasticity of the morphogenesis pathway renders the virus resistant to minor defects.
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