Retrovirus articles from across Nature Portfolio

In this Review, Kleinpeter and Freed explore recent insights into HIV-1 assembly, release and maturation, showing how late-stage replication events prime infectivity. They also highlight progress in inhibitors targeting late-stage events and the therapeutic promise for people with HIV.

Traces of HIV-1 RNA remain in the plasma despite years of antiretroviral therapy (ART), sometimes causing nonsupressible viremia (NSV). Here, the authors show that 5′Leader-defective RNA is the predominant driver for NSV in ART-treated individuals.

Collagen based 3D tissue-like cultures have been shown to modulate HIV-1 infectivity and mode of spread. Here, the authors demonstrate that varying the density of type I collagen matrices impair HIV-1 particle fusion and sensitize virions for TLR-based innate immune recognition by macrophages implicating structural changes in Env, TLR2 interaction and TLR8 positive endosomes promoting innate immune detection of viral gRNA.

Atomistic simulations reveal how HIV-1 capsid proteins transition from immature to mature forms. By identifying the molecular pathway, a metastable intermediate, and energetics, these findings highlight the stepwise conformational changes and key interactions that stabilize the mature capsid.

HIV-1 evades host immunity via a number of virally encoded mediators. Here the authors show that the HIV-1 antisense protein evades host immunity by interfering with the type I interferon response.

HIV-1 releases its DNA when its protective capsid shell disassembles (uncoats) inside membraneless subnuclear organelles called nuclear speckles. Drugs that force uncoating to occur elsewhere promote viral DNA insertion into different genomic sites.

This paper reports week 96 efficacy and safety findings from a multicentre, open-label phase IIIb trial of intramuscular cabotegravir and rilpivirine in adults living with HIV from Uganda, Kenya and South Africa.

Two new studies find that HIV-1 can enter the nucleus by cracking or distorting nuclear pore structures, explaining how the HIV-1 capsid can seemingly ignore the size limitations associated with conventional nuclear import.

Despite the global burden of HIV-1, the majority of sequence data and research remain disproportionately focused on subtype B, primarily circulating in the global north. Sub-Saharan Africa, the epicentre of HIV-1 genetic diversity and prevalence, requires increased representation in sequencing efforts and regionally led research to inform effective interventions.

The long-term safety of genetically modified T cells for therapeutic applications remains a crucial concern. A comprehensive analysis of 783 patients across multiple clinical trials, with >2,200 patient-years of follow-up, found no strong evidence linking these therapies to insertional oncogenesis.

We report the first case of a person achieving sustained HIV-1 remission after transplantation with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells that express wild-type CCR5 and thus are permissive to HIV-1 infection. The 53-year-old man received the transplant in 2018 to treat a rare myeloid sarcoma and has not experienced viral rebound since discontinuing antiretroviral therapy in November 2021.

In this Journal Club, Ricardo Soto-Rifo discusses a study on intron-containing HIV-1 RNA, revealing its role as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern in myeloid cells, which has implications for immune activation, inflammation and clinical outcomes.