Cytopathic Mechanisms of HIV-1.docVIP

Virology Journal BioMedCentral Review Open Access Cytopathic Mechanisms of HIV-1 Joshua M Costin Address: Biotechnology Research Group, Department of Biology, Florida Gulf Coast University, 10501 FGCU Blvd. S., Fort Myers, Fl, 33965, USA Email: Joshua M Costin - jcostin@ Published: 18 October 2007 Received: 4 September 2007 Accepted: 18 October 2007 Virology Journal 2007, 4:100 doi:10.1186/1743-422X-4-100 This article is available from: /content/4/1/100 ? 2007 Costin; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has been intensely investigated since its discovery in 1983 as the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). With relatively few proteins made by the virus, it is able to accomplish many tasks, with each protein serving multiple functions. The Envelope glycoprotein, composed of the two noncovalently linked subunits, SU (surface glycoprotein) and TM (transmembrane glycoprotein) is largely responsible for host cell recognition and entry respectively. While the roles of the N-terminal residues of TM is well established as a fusion pore and anchor for Env into cell membranes, the role of the C-terminus of the protein is not well understood and is fiercely debated. This review gathers information on TM in an attempt to shed some light on the functional regions of this protein. Review HIV discovery and clinical presentation three clinical stages – acute viremia, a latency phase of var- iable duration, and a classification of clinical AIDS (Figure 1). Concurrent with initial infection, virus can be detected in the blood of patients [11,12]. After the initial viremia peaks, the level of virus in the blood falls of