replication

• 1. glycoprotein molecules on the virus surface bind to the CD4 receptors, on the surface of T-helper cells

  • this allows the envelope surrounding the virus to fuse with the T-helper cell membrane
• 2. the capsid is released into the cell where it releases the RNA and reverse transcriptase
• 3. reverse transcriptase is used to make DNA from the HIV RNA template
• 4. the DNA is inserted into the cells DNA which gets replicated when cells replicate
• 5. DNA used to make HIV RNA and proteins at host ribosomes
• 6. virus particles are assembled which bud off from the cell membrane and go on to infect other cells