UVA School of Medicine makes new discovery on how viruses infect cells

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered how viruses, such as HIV, infect cells.

Researchers used detached portions of a cell’s membrane to see how the virus first attacks cells.

This research has been tested on HIV but could open up a path to finding how other viruses attack cells, such as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

“Viruses, they’re parasites so they can’t replicate outside of our cells, so we wanted to catch this first step with really high resolution and catch these really short intermediate steps,” UVA School of Medicine’s Amanda Ward said.

The goal from this research is to eventually be able to develop drugs that can block the initial infection process.

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