Images in Clinical Medicine
Budding of Human Immunodeficiency Virus
N Engl J Med 1998; 339:32July 2, 1998
- Article
Figure 1 During budding, the nascent capsid of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associates with the plasma membrane of the host cell and induces the extrusion of the lipid bilayer. To form a fully infectious particle, the capsid and the viral-surface glycoproteins must interact in order to select the necessary components from among the various host-cell glycoproteins. However, as is true for other retroviruses, the viral-envelope glycoproteins are not essential to this process, since pseudoviruses in which the envelope gene is deleted efficiently assemble and release membrane-enveloped particles. Pseudovirions (Panel A, ×7000; and Panel B, ×50,000) can be derived in vitro from the overexpression of the capsid polyprotein and constitute a convenient model with which to visualize the process of HIV budding at the cell surface with the aid of scanning electron microscopy.
Philippe Roingeard, Ph.D.
Denys Brand, Ph.D.
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Tours 37044, France
