Sneaking In

Viruses are essentially lengths of DNA or RNA with a protective protein coat hell-bent on exploiting your cells’ resources and abilities. They sneak inside and head to the nucleus – the cell's control centre. The nucleus is shielded by an impenetrable fortress wall that only opens up when the cell divides – the nuclear envelope. HIV-1, however, manages to worm its way into the nucleus of cells that never divide. It heads for pores in the envelope – small, heavily guarded gates in the wall – but shouldn’t be able to get through because of its size. To understand how it slips in, researchers gave it a fluorescent label and watched it in action. HIV-1 (pink) binds first to a protein on the pore (Nup153, green), and then to another inside the nucleus, which pulls it through. Identifying this weakness in the fortress might lead researchers to new treatments to fortify defences, and keep HIV out.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Video from work by David Alejandro Bejarano and Ke Peng, and colleagues
• Department of Infectious Diseases Virology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
• Video originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, January 2019