NIH scientists unveil characteristic of HIV early in transmission
A new finding from scientists at the National Institutes of Health could help efforts to design vaccines and other prevention tools to block HIV in the early stages of sexual transmission, before infection takes hold. Researchers at the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have helped explain genetic differences that can distinguish some early-transmitting HIVs—viruses found in an infected individual within the first month after infection—from forms of HIV isolated later in infection. These genetic features help HIV bind tightly to a molecule called integrin α4β7. According to the scientists, the capacity to bind tightly to α4β7 likely enhances the ability of certain HIV viruses to complete the many steps of sexual transmission and become the "founder" virus that establishes infection in an individual.