Direct movie recording when the HIV virus is born

Humans have never observed the time when viruses formed. US researchers have filmed one such birth directly - at a particular pathogen: HIV.

HIV snapshot by electron microscope.(Photo: DPA)

Science now knows a lot about HIV, has been able to see it through a microscope, but it's all from dead tissue. They have never observed directly a virus forming in a cell, until now.

Biological physicist Sanford Simon at Rockefeller University and HIV expert Paul Bieniasz of Aaron Diamond Research Center in New York used a new microscopic technique developed by Simon in 1992 to film HIV time formation. The results are published in the journal Nature.

To be able to see the reproductive virus, the group attached a fluorescence to the viral envelope, called Gag protein. Gag is a crucial element in making new HIV. Gathering together to a certain number, they built a virus envelope themselves.

The question is how long does it take to form an HIV?

"We have absolutely no idea how many hours or just a few thousand seconds," Simon said. So far, the position and time of HIV formation have not been studied at all. After many trials Simon and Bieniasz can now answer: "An HIV is formed in about 5 to 6 minutes."

So where are they made, inside or on the surface of the cell? You must know the answer to know where to look. Simon and Bienasz confirmed the second theory. They saw many points on the inside of the surface of the glowing surface, one after another - new viruses formed with luminescent Gag protein.

The identification of the initial viruses formed on the surface of cells is important for new strategies against this virus, Simon said. "It is important to put enzymes that inhibit virus formation into cells or just let them work on the cell surface enough." With the new microscopic technique, Simon wants to find out exactly when inhibitory enzymes are effective during HIV formation.

But this technique also creates many new possibilities: Movie stars in his new films will not only be HIV or other viruses but will also be neurons that generate transmitters in synapses. Or pancreatic cells release insulin into the blood. The aim of the researchers is to find out what is damaged in these cells in people with diabetes. "Now we can film all that," Simon said.