Jahan et al. highlight a sophisticated viral countermeasure to host defence, by showing that unintegrated HIV-1 DNA produced by reverse transcription can avoid detection by cGAS, thus enabling efficient viral replication.

Unintegrated HIV-1 DNA recruits cGAS via its histone-binding domain to escape innate immunity
Jahan et al. PNAS 2025
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2424465122

Monsef Benkirane – Molecular virology