Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 assembly, release, and maturation

A detailed understanding of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) assembly, release, and maturation is fundamental to our knowledge of the HIV-1 replication cycle and has the potential to inform the development of new antiretroviral strategies. The structural protein Gag plays a central role in these pathways and drives production of a mature infectious particle through protein–protein, protein–RNA, and protein–lipid interactions. These interactions facilitate multimerization of Gag to form the structural shell of the particle, encapsidation of the RNA genome, trafficking of the virion components to the site of assembly, acquisition of a lipid bilayer and associated envelope glycoproteins, hijacking host cell machinery to facilitate virus release, and proteolytic maturation of the nascent virion. In this review, we describe the significant progress that has been achieved in understanding these processes and highlight key areas that remain unclear. Finally, we discuss how this knowledge is being applied to develop new anti-HIV drugs, an important research priority due to rapid emergence of HIV-1 isolates resistant to currently approved antiretroviral drugs.