For instance, though not specific to HIV, and not exotic from a physicist's perspective, but certainly exotic in terms of taking physics into account at a different abstraction layer when compiling down to DNA:

DNA seems to be able to detect lesions and mis-matches based on conductivity of electrons down the double-strands themselves [1].

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2741234/