Professor Stephen Fuller and colleagues from Oxford University’s Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics have revealed the cone shaped outer coat of the HIV virus and it has spikes over the surface which makes the virus attach to the membrane of the host through the attachment it inserts the viral genetic material into the host cell leading to replication and infection.
Researchers studied the 3D structure of the virus and have reported their finding in the Journal Structure. HIV virus has a wide range of variability due to difference in size and shape which makes it very different to understand its structure and shape the researchers studied the structure of 100’s of HIV virus before they could arrive at the 3-D structure of the HIV, which could help in producing effective drugs which targets specifically on the structure of the HIV.
