VAGINAL gels to protect women against HIV have failed to work, but new insights into how the virus is transmitted could change this.
HIV in semen takes two forms: as DNA in white blood cells and free-floating RNA in seminal fluid. The two are genetically distinct.
To find out which transmits the disease, Davey Smith and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, took samples from six pairs of homosexual men in which HIV had been transferred from one to the other. When they compared the virus found in the recipient to the DNA and RNA versions in the…
