Fig. (1) Experimental strategy for the HIV genital transmission model in humanized mice. A. Presented are the amino acid sequence and three-dimensional structure of the short helical peptide SWLRDIWDWICEVLSDFK C5A deduced from the nuclear magnetic resonance structure of the NS5A N-terminal membrane anchor. The image was created from structure coordinates using VMD (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/). B. Experimental timeline for the “humanization” of mice including the engraftment of human fetal tissues, the inoculation of autologous human CD34+ liver cells as well as the topical application of C5A prior to vaginal and rectal HIV challenges, and the viral load quantification in blood collected at the indicated time points.