Nature Chem. Biol. doi:10.1038/nchembio.151 (2009)

An analysis of the sugars that cloak HIV-1 indicates that the virus leaves cells by usurping a native pathway used to spit out bits of cell membrane. This may help to camouflage it from the immune system.

When HIV-1 exits a cell, it picks up a coat of proteins decorated with sugars. Lara Mahal of the University of Texas at Austin and her colleagues found that the sugar profile of HIV-1 particles in cell culture matched that of microvesicles — cell membrane fragments thought to modulate immune responses — that are shed by infected cells.

The results raise concern that therapies aiming to block the interaction between HIV sugars and host cells could also interfere with microvesicle function. However, the researchers add that the same process may not be hijacked in all infected cells; they looked only at immune cells called T cells.