A method for detecting HIV infection in a mammal is disclosed. The method contains the steps of isolating exosomes from a urine sample of a mammal and detecting the presence of HIV-specific biomarker in said isolated exosomes. A method for diagnosing a mammal with an HIV-associated disease, in particular, HIV-associated nephropathy is also disclosed.

Methods to inhibit the formation of retrovirus integrase reaching dimers, to dissociate retrovirus integrase reaching dimers, and to stabilize retrovirus integrase reaching dimers in a conformation in which retrovirus DNA-to host cell DNA integration activity of the integrase is inhibited are provided. Methods for treating a retrovirus infection, which target retrovirus integrase reaching dimer formation and/or stability are also provided.

The inventors developed a new system to modify tropism of syncytins, envelope proteins, which can be used to functionalize particles such as virus particle or more particularly viral-like particles (VLPs), and used for gene transfer or other applications. In particular, they created a fusion protein containing the Syncytin-1 (SYN) signal sequence (SS), a targeting moiety (either natural or engineered), the SYN protein and a flexible linker between SYN and the targeting moiety to enhance transduction of the cell type expressing the receptor or the antigen targeted by the targeting moiety, for instance hematopoietic stem progenitor cells (HSPCs). The inventors demonstrated that the fusion strategy allows modification of syncytin tropism towards different receptors in order to target f the desired cell type. The system is adaptable to other desired antigens to retarget the fusion protein to a specific cell type.

The present invention relates to a composition of lentiviral particles comprising a mutated integrase and an RNA-guided nuclease, for targeted gene insertion.

Provided are methods for large scale production of viral particles, and compositions and methods for using said viral particles.