HIV in Act of Infection

Videos Capture HIV in Act of Infection

By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today Published: March 26, 2009 Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor  University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

NEW YORK, March 26 -- Remarkable video images show HIV reaching out from an infected T cell to enter an adjacent uninfected cell, researchers here said.  The images, taken using quantitative, high-speed, three-dimensional video microscopy, provide new insight into how HIV propagates from cell to cell, according to Benjamin Chen, M.D., Ph.D., of Mount Sinai School of Medicine here, and colleagues.  In the video images, the virus is seen to reach out through "virological synapses," forming "synaptic buttons" from which genetic material penetrates a target cell, Dr. Chen and colleagues reported in the March 26 issue of Science.