CD4-independent HIV Envelope proteins

Patent Granted Exposed on the surface of the viral envelope, the glycoprotein gp120 binds to the CD4 receptor on any target cell that has such a receptor, particularly the helper T-cell. See HIV tropism and Replication cycle of HIV. Strains of HIV-1 have been isolated that are able to enter host cells that are CD4 negative.[citation needed] This CD4-independence is associated with spontaneous mutation in the env gene. The presence of a co-receptor, CXCR4, is sufficient for this mutant strain to infect human cells. The strain with this phenotype was found to have seven mutations in the sequence coding for gp120 and it is proposed that these mutations induce conformational changes in gp120 that allow the virus to directly interact with the co-receptor