If a person contracts multiple strains of HIV - typically by engaging in unprotected sex with multiple infected partners - then these strains can recombine into a new variant of HIV within the host. The new Cuban variant of HIV is one such recombinant version of the virus.
HIV anchors itself to co-receptors - proteins on the membranes of cells - before the virus is able to penetrate the cell. The first co-receptor that HIV anchors to is known as CCR5. Then, after a number of years of normal health, the virus switches to the anchor point CXCR4, which results in a faste...
Read more