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Nature 418, 594-595 (8 August 2002) | doi:10.1038/418594a

HIV: A tough viral nut to crack

Roger J. Pomerantz

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HIV cannot multiply in certain human cells unless it expresses a protein called Vif, the function of which has finally been revealed. It seems that it overcomes a human protein that would otherwise block viral replication.

Nowadays, researchers generally succeed in working out what viral proteins do within a few years of their discovery. This is certainly the case for nearly all proteins from the type 1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), whose genome is arguably the most extensively studied 9,700 or so bases of genetic sequence on the planet.