HIV1 virus spreading from one T cell to another

HIV1 virus spreading from one T cell to another

Matthew Whelan

The virus HIV1 infects T cells (white blood cells) as it major niche. It preferentially infects through a process called cell to cell spread, where the infected cell forms a contact with an uninfected cell, directly spreading the virus. Here is a super resolution microscope image of HIV1 (green) spreading from an infected cell (left) to a target cell (right). The nuclear envelope of the cells are labelled in magenta. The newly infected cell (right) has HIV1 then traffic into its nucleus