AUTHOR=Sarca Anamaria D. , Sardo Luca , Fukuda Hirofumi , Matsui Hiroyuki , Shirakawa Kotaro , Horikawa Kazuki , Takaori-Kondo Akifumi , Izumi Taisuke TITLE=FRET-Based Detection and Quantification of HIV-1 Virion Maturation JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.647452 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.647452 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
HIV-1 infectivity is achieved through virion maturation. Virus particles undergo structural changes via cleavage of the Gag polyprotein mediated by the viral protease, causing the transition from an uninfectious to an infectious status. The majority of proviruses in people living with HIV-1 treated with combination antiretroviral therapy are defective with large internal deletions. Defective proviral DNA frequently preserves intact sequences capable of expressing viral structural proteins to form virus-like particles whose maturation status is an important factor for chronic antigen-mediated immune stimulation and inflammation. Thus, novel methods to study the maturation capability of defective virus particles are needed to characterize their immunogenicity. To build a quantitative tool to study virion maturation