HIV Life Cycle - Infection

Several different kinds of cells have proteins on their surface that are called CD4 receptors. HIV searches for such cells that have CD4 surface receptors, because this particular protein enables this virus to bind itself to the cell. Although HIV infects a variety of cells, its main target is the T4-lymphocyte (also called the "T-helper cell"), the cell which is responsible for warning your immune system that there are invaders in the system, a kind of white blood cell that has lots of CD4 receptors. Replication: Once HIV binds to a cell, it hides HIV DNA inside the cell's DNA: this turns the cell into a sort of HIV factory.