Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have decoded the entire HIV genome, opening the door to understanding how viruses infect humans – knowledge that could lead to new antiviral drugs.

The research, led by chemistry professor Kevin Weeks, will be published in the Aug. 6 issue of the journal Nature.

HIV, like the viruses that cause the flu, hepatitis C and polio, is composed of single stranded RNA, rather than double stranded DNA. RNA is more complex than DNA. It is able to fold into intricate patterns and structures, whereas with DNA, all the genetic information is encoded in the sequence of its building blocks, called nucleotides..

Prior to this study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, researchers had modeled only small parts of the large HIV RNA genome,which is composed of two strands of nearly 10,000 nucleotides each.

“There is so much structure in the HIV RNA genome that it almost certainly plays a previously unappreciated role in the expression of the genetic code,” Weeks said.

The study brings the potential of identifying the roles RNA genomes play in the lifecycles of these viruses.

Ron Swanstrom, a professor of microbiology and immunology at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, says researchers can now change the RNA sequence to see how that affects the virus.

“If it doesn’t grow as well when you disrupt the virus with mutations, then you know you’ve mutated or affected something that was important to the virus,” he says.

Adds Weeks: “We are also beginning to understand tricks the genome uses to help the virus escape detection by the human host.”

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