The Molecules of HIV |
Note: this site last updated in 2006
vifAn article from "The Molecules of HIV" (c) Dan Stowell
www.mcld.co.uk/hiv The "vif" gene codes for "virion infectivity factor", a protein that increases the infectivity of the HIV particle. The protein is found inside HIV-infected cells, and it works by interfering with one of the immune system's defences - a cellular protein called APOBEC3G. Basically what happens is that vif sticks to APOBEC3G and encourages the cell to degrade it, preventing it doing its job of sneaking into newly-formed virus particles and making them non-productive (see the APOBEC3G page for more information). This has been verified in experiments. If you can create a HIV virus with the Vif protein missing (we would call this a "delta-Vif" strain of HIV), then it can still infect a cell - but the new virus particles produced from that cell contain APOBEC3G and therefore aren't very effective at infecting other cells. Facts:
Journal articles about Vif:
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