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HIV Structure
The picture above shows the structure of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV). The outer shell of the virus is known as the viral envelope.
Embedded in the viral envelope is a complex protein known as env, which
consists of an outer protruding cap glycoprotein (gp) 120, and a
stem gp41.
Within the viral envelope is an HIV protein called p17 (matrix), and
within this is the viral core or capsid, which is made of another viral
protein p24 (core antigen).
The major elements contained within the viral core are two single strands of HIV
RNA, a protein p7 (nucleocapsid), and three enzyme proteins, p51
(reverse transcriptase), p11 (protease) and p32 (integrase).