Over the last 50 years, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has swept across the six continents, claiming several million lives yearly. Despite sustained intense research efforts, there is still no cure for HIV. For billions of years, viruses evolved strategies to enter and take control of organisms to generate progeny viruses, including means of hijacking the cellular protein synthesis machinery. Understanding these mechanisms opens a unique window of opportunity: that of eventually being able to specifically inhibit virus protein production and thus put a stop to virus replication. In this work, HIV-1 protein synthesis was studied, uncovering the presence of an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in the genetic code of HIV-1. IRESes are structures directly capable of recruiting the cellular protein synthesis to force virus production. Further characterization of this element and other aspects of translation initiation suggested a mechanism unique to HIV-1, shedding light on the initial steps of HIV-1 protein synthesis.

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