HIV integration, HIV viral life cycle, illustration

Watercolour and ink on paper illustration of a cross section through part of a target cell (blue and purple; usually a CD4 T cell, a type of white blood cell found in the immune system) infected with HIV. Once the virus has entered the target cell, the viral capsid uncoats (red; top middle) and interacts with nuclear pore proteins such as Nup358 releasing the viral DNA (green). Viral DNA enters the nucleus (lower part of image) from the cytoplasm (upper part of image) through the nuclear pore (purple) and is integrated into the cell's own genome by the enzyme HIV integrase (red molecule; lower middle). Width of image is approximately 100 nm. This image forms part of a series of illustrations which capture HIV at eight different points in the viral life cycle as it infects a cell and replicates.