Researchers map key protein interaction believed to control HIV growth inside cell. (NF-kappa-B and I-kappa-B) (University of California, San Francisco)

University of California, San Francisco

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology have charted the course of a key cellular protein interaction that plays an important role in controlling the growth of HIV inside human T cells.

The proteins involved, called NF-Kappa-B and I-Kappa -B, are inactive when the T cell is in a resting state. But once an HIV-infected T cell is activated, these proteins trigger the cascade of events that lead to reproduction of the virus inside the cell nucleus, the researchers report in the March 26, 1993, issue of the journal Science.

The researchers also discovered a unique relationship between the proteins, in which NF-Kappa-B is initially inhibited …