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This image by Martin Obr, PhD of IST Austria shows a structure called a capsid that shields viral genetic material and helps it infect other cells. | Microbiology
An international team of researchers has discovered how a tiny protein particle makes a retrovirus, Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) which is similar to HIV virus infectious; the particle also makes HIV virulent, thereby, potentially explaining the virulence of all retroviruses.
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VIDEO: The proteins of the virus capsid, which contains the genetic information, are much more flexible in their shape than previously thought. The small IP6 molecules (0:38) stabilize the protein hexamers. view more
Credit: Marti Obr, IST Austria
Viruses are perfect molecular machines. Their only goal is to insert their genetic material into healthy cells and thus multiply. With deadly precision, they thereby can cause diseases that cost millions of lives and keep the world on edge. One example for such a virus, although currently less discussed, is HIV that causes the ongoing global AIDS-epidemic. Despite the progress made in recent years, 690 000 people died in 2019 alone as a result of the virus infection. If you want to know the enemy, you have to know all its friends, says Martin Obr, postdoc at the Schur group at IST Austria. Together with his colleagues, he therefore studies a virus belonging to the same family as HIV - the Rous sarcoma virus, a v