HIV and infectivity: recent developments

The most recent issue of Nature contains two articles about Nef, a protein of the HIV-1 virus which increases infectivity in a human host.

The authors of the two studies independently found that Nef inhibits two proteins of the host that have antiviral activity against HIV: SERINC3 and SERINC5.

This discovery has important implications for the fight against AIDS, as the development of a drug targeting Nef could prevent the virus from spreading from cell to cell within the host. But first, more research has to be done on the mechanisms by which SERINC3 and SERINC5 operate.

Source: aids. gov