부산대학교 도서관

A great many viruses consist of an outer envelope, which surrounds an inner core. The outer envelope contains proteins which bind to target cells and promote the entry of the virus into the cell, while the core contains the genetic material of the virus and the enzymatic machinery to promote replication of the virus. When a single cell is infected with two viruses, it is sometimes possible to obtain phenotypic mixing. In other words, the genome of one virus may be surrounded by the envelope of another. Such mixing may be more than just a laboratory curiosity. Being surrounded by the envelope of another virus may provide the genes a way to infect cells which are not normally part of their normal host range. Research has now demonstrated, at least in tissue culture, that genes of the human immunodeficiency virus may be surrounded by the envelope of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) or the envelope of herpes simplex virus (HSV). Phenotypically mixed viruses were prepared by infecting the H9 cell line, already infected with HIV, with either VSV or HSV. Investigators were able to demonstrate the existence of phenotypic mixtures by showing that the recovered virus stock could now infect cells which were normally refractory to infection with HIV. That is, cells which can be infected with herpes simplex, for example, were now being infected by the herpes simplex envelope carrying the AIDS virus genes within. Like Greeks climbing from the Trojan horse, the HIV genes could successfully infect the cell once having gotten inside the gates. Although it is uncertain if such an effect actually occurs in human patients infected with HIV, the disturbing possibility remains that the AIDS virus may borrow some phenotypic characteristics from other viruses it encounters and expand its ability to infect both other cells and other people. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)