[Pwnguinz]

> were HIV to mutate away from being able to bind to those chunks it too would become less virulent when attacking the real proteins.

Forgive my ignorance, but are there any indicators to predict whether a virus will evolve one way or another?

What I mean is, once it comes in contact with these mimic proteins, instead of mutating away from binding to these proteins, can it not mutate in such a way that it increases its virility so that it will bind onto more proteins in an effort to combat "false positives"? So it'll become even more virulent in individuals that have not received this treatment, and maintain its current virility in individuals receiving such treatments?

[toufka]

The mutations themselves are random. Generally it's reasonable to think of mutations as movement across an energetic landscape. And like in physics, nearly anything is possible if you give it enough time/energy. However, if constrained, the shortest path is usually the most likely.

Back to your question - is there an indicator to predict whether a virus will evolve towards or away from its effectiveness. Ideally, you'd put such constraints on the virus in other ways (in addition to the above concept/treatment), that it wouldn't have the energy/time to get to that much more complicated state of binding more proteins. Every additional mechanism a virus uses is a significant penalty against something as compact and efficient as a virus. But in the end there is likely no way to make any treatment perfect and unovercomable. Best we can do is defend.