HIV replication

• HIV can only reproduce inside the cells of the organism it's infected
• HIV replicates inside helper T-cells
• 1. attachment proteins (gp120) attach to a receptor molecule (CD4) on the helper T-cell's membrane
• 2. the capsid fuses with the cell surface membrane of the T-cell, releasing the RNA and enzymes into the cell
• 3. reverse transcriptase catalyses the conversion of viral RNA to viral DNA, which is then added to the genome of the cell
• 4. the host cell now has the instructions to produce viral HIV components, which are then assembled into new viruses which bud out of the cell to infect other cells