Unpicking HIV`s invisibility cloak

Drug researchers hunting for alternative ways to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections may soon have a novel target—its camouflage coat. HIV hides inside a cloak unusually rich in a sugar called mannose, which it uses to slip past the immune system before infecting its host’s cells. Recently, however, biochemists discovered a family of chemical compounds that stick strongly to mannose. Understanding how this mechanism works could reveal a way to make drugs adhere to and kill HIV. Yu Nakagawa and Yukishige Ito at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako and their colleagues from several research institutes in Japan are leading the effort: they have mapped the binding site of the mannose-binding compound pradimicin A.