HIV

• HIV eventually leads to AIDs
• Aids is a condition where the immune system deteriorates and eventually fails
• during the initial infection the person will experience severe flu like symptoms and then when the virus stops replicating there will be a latency period
• initial symptoms of AIDS include minor infections and respiratory infections
• as aids progresses the patient becomes exposed to serious infections such as TB
• during the final stages of AIDs patients they develop a serious infection that leads to their death, they don't die of aids
• HIV contains:

  • RNA
  • reverse transcriptase
  • capsid
  • attachment protein
• HIV replication:

  1. attachment protein attaches to a receptor molecule on the cell membrane of the host helper T-cell
  2. The capsid is released into the cell where it uncoats and releases RNA into the cells cytoplasm
  3. reverse transcriptase is used to make a complementary strand of DNA from the viral RNA template
  4. double stranded DNA is made and inserted into the human DNA
  5. host cell enzymes are used to make viral proteins from the viral DNA found within the human DNA
  6. the viral proteins are assembled into new viruses which leave the cell and go to infect other cells
• most antiviral drugs target the few virus-specific enzymes
• antibiotics kill bacteria by interfering with their metabolic reactions
• antibiotics target the bacterial enzymes and ribosomes used to replicate
• HIV can be spread through unprotected sex, through bodily fluids, and from HIV positive mother to their fetus