HIV tropism (original) (raw)

HIV tropism refers to the cell type in which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects and replicates. HIV tropism of a patient's virus is measured by the Trofile assay. HIV can infect a variety of cells such as CD4+ helper T-cells and macrophages that express the CD4 molecule on their surface. HIV-1 entry to macrophages and T helper cells is mediated not only through interaction of the virion envelope glycoproteins (gp120) with the CD4 molecule on the target cells but also with its chemokine coreceptors.