Pushing HIV out the door: How host factors aid in the release of HIV particles
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS invades human immune cells and causes them to produce new copies of the virus, which can then infect new cells. A research team led by Professor Don C. Lamb (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich) and Priv.-Doz. Dr. Barbara Müller of Heidelberg University Hospital have now analyzed the involvement of particular components of the infected cell in virion release, and discovered that the enzyme VPS4A plays a more active role in the process than was previously thought. VPS4A was already known to act after virus budding was complete. Using an advanced microscopy technique, the group was able to show that complexes containing about a dozen VPS4A molecules form at points in the membrane at which newly assembled virions later emerge.