Hi werwin,

Didactylos was completely correct. (Thank you for the excellent figure.) HIV "virions" (the name for virus particles) have been studied with the most high-powered microscopes (i.e., "electron microscopes").

At a much, much smaller scale of resolution, the structural proteins and the enzymes from HIV have also been studied with a technique called "X-ray crystallography." The "crystal structures" produced by this technique present a detailed, 3-D map of the average structure of a protein, at the scale of the individual atoms that form it. The calculations that you all help us perform for FightAIDSatHome are heavily based upon these "crystal structures" of the wild type and mutant forms of a specific enzyme from HIV called "HIV protease."

If drugs bind to and block the ability of the many copies of the HIV protease enzyme from working properly, then the infected cell is not able to produce mature, infectious virus particles. Warped, immature, non-infectious blobs bud from the infected cell, instead. Thus, by inhibiting HIV protease, these drugs help prevent the onset of AIDS and also impede its progression.

Thanks for your help,
Dr. Alex L. Perryman