13-15. HIV Flashcards
Approximately how many adults & children are estimated to be living with HIV (2012)?
Around 35.3 million (between 32.3 - 38.8 million)
What is attributed to the decrease in new HIV infections & AIDS related deaths globally?
Access to antiretroviral therapy, which reduces the infectiousness of HIV-infected individuals by reducing the amount of virus in body
What is the general trend of new HIV diagnoses in Australia?
1983 - HIV virus was discovered
1985 - virus testing became available, hence a peak in new diagnoses is observed before numbers decrease over time
Unlike the rest of the world, Australian cases are on a slow but generally steady incline (still comparatively very very low numbers of HIV infected compared w. South Africa)
What is the difference between newly diagnosed and newly acquired HIV infection?
Newly diagnosed: acquired more than 6 months ago and did not know about it until tested much later post-infection
Newly acquired: acquired within the last 6 months
What are the greatest risk factors for newly diagnosed vs newly acquired HIV infections? (AUS)
In Australia, men who have sex with men make up respectively 64% and 85% of those with HIV infection. *median age ~ 30yo.
Heterosexual contact is the next most common at 25% and 9%.
Low numbers due to injecting drug use due to introduction of access to clean needles.
Men who have sex with men and have injecting drug use 3% & 3%
What are the risk factors for HIV globally?
Heterosexual 80-85%
Homosexual 5-10%
Intravenous drug use 5-10%
Blood transfusions 3-5%
Unknown 0-17%
What are the factors associated with a generalised epidemic?
Behavioral and social factors
- little or no condom use
- multiple partners
- overlapping sexual partners
- large sexual networks
- age mixing: old men & young girls
- women dependent on marriage/prostitution
Biological factors
- high STI rates
- low rate of male circumcision
- HIV subtype (possibly)
- genetics of host
What family does HIV belong to and what are some examples of non-primate and primate retroviruses?
HIV is a retrovirus of the Lentiviridae family.
Non-primate retroviruses
- CAEV/Visna: Caprine arthritis encephalitis/Visna virus
- EIAV: Equine Infectious anaemia virus)
- BIV: Bovine Immunodeficiency virus
- FIV: Feline Immunodeficiency virus
Primate retroviruses:
- African Green Monkey (SIVagm)
- Sooty Mangabey (SIVsm) ——– HIV-2
- Macaque (SIVmac)
- Mandrills (SIVmnd)
- Sykes monkeys (SIVsyk)
- Chimpanzee (SMcpz) ——– HIV-1
What are the properties of Lentiviruses?
Family: retrovirus
Major human virus: HIV-1, HIV-2
Size: 80-130mm
Capsid symmetry: icosahedral
Envelope: yes
Genome: diploid linear 10kb, + sense ssRNA
Genome replicated: nucleus
Virus assembly: cytoplasm - plasma membrane
Common features: slow disease
Diseases: AIDS; neurologic; arthritis; pneumonia
What does the HIV genome contain?
gag (structural proteins), pol (viral enzymes) and env proteins (envelope glycoproteins) for all HIVs, however they differ by their regulatory proteins which control viral life cycle
*a high degree of variability exists for gag and env proteins
Regulatory proteins: tat, rev, vpr, vpu, vif, nef
What is the structure of the retrovirus?
env:
- gp120 - SU (surface); cell attachment
- gp41 - TM (transmembrane); fusion domain
gag:
- p17 - MA (matrix)
- p24 - CA (capsid)
- p7 - NC (nucleocapsid)
pol:
- p66/51 - RT (reverse transcriptase)
- p32 - IN (integrase)
- p11 - PR (protease)
Why is knowledge about HIV clades important?
Important for:
- epidemiology
- understanding origins
- developing vaccines which need to be clade-specific
What is the HIV life cycle?
- CD4 binding
- Co-receptor binding: chemokine co-receptors CCR5, CXCR4
- Fusion where ssRNA is injected into the cell, reverse transcription of the viral RNA genome occurs to give proviral DNA. In the nucleus, proviral DNA is integrated into host cell genome and transcribed to produce viral RNAs which are translated, and assembled at the membrane.
- Budding
- Maturation
- New HIV virion *once it’s in host genome, it will survive for as long as the cell lives
What are the key features of HIV replication?
- Rapid: 24 hr replication cycle, but occurs at very high frequencies
- Error prone reverse transcriptase leads to rapid evolution of multiple quasispecies
- 10 billion particles produced per day
- Impact on host cells:
- CD4+ T cells
- activated: death
- resting: latent
- Monocyte/macrophages:
- long lived slow release of virus
What is an R5 virus and what does it target?
CCR5-tropic virus
Enters CD4+ T cells via CCR5
95% of people are infected with R5 virus
- nearly all infections are caused by R5 viruses
- more easily transmitted
- R5 viruses cause less T-cell destruction
What is an X4 virus and what does it target?
CXCR4-tropic virus
Enters CD4+ T cells via CXCR4
- rarely transmitted (don’t efficiently cross mucosal membranes)
- emerge late in course of infection
- 50% of patients with AIDS carry X4 virus
What is a dual tropic HIV virus and what are mixed tropic viral populations?
Dual tropic = HIV that can use either CCR5 or CXCR4
*about 50% of AIDs patients carry both by the time they develop AIDS
Mixed tropic (D/M) = virus populations containing a mixture of R5-tropic, X4-tropic and/or dual-tropic HIV
Describe the natural resistance to HIV in terms of CCR5 mutations
Approx. 1% of population carry a mutation in CCR5, and 5% are heterozygotes.
- wt/wt = normal CCR5 expression, progression of HIV and normal immune function
- wt/delta 32 = decreased CCR5 expression, delayed progression to AIDS/death, normal immune function
- delta 32/delta 32 = no CCR5 expression, rare infection with X4, normal immune function
The delta 32 mutation leads to a deletion of 32bp and no expression of CCR5.
What is the global prevalence of the CCR5delta32 mutation?
5-14% Caucasians of European descent carry it
10% Australians
10-15% North America
The origin has been traced to European geography approx 1000 years ago.
Possible selection by pandemic pathogen, ie. smallbox, bubonic plague
Which cells do HIV infect?
Cells that express CD4+ lymphocytes:
- activated T cells
- massive & early depletion in the GIT
Monocytes & macrophages:
- express CD4, CCR5, low levels of CXCR4
- tissue macrophages in:
- brain (glial cells)
- lung
- gut
- bone marrow monocyte precursors
- lymphoid tissue macrophages
- macrophages are chronically infected & serve as a reservoir
Dendritic cells:
- allow HIV entry, but productive infection is rare
Other cells:
- thymocytes
- CD34+ progenitor cells
What is APOBEC3G how does HIV counter it?
APOBEC3G is an innate anti-viral cellular factor that edits RNA when it sees foreign RNA so it doesn’t persist in cell.
Counteracted by the HIV protein vif, which inhibits APOBEC3G.
What is TRIM 5α how does HIV counter it?
TRIM 5α is an innate anti-viral cellular factor that blocks uncoating of retroviruses.
Human trim 5α is inactive against HIV due to the HIV capsid protein.
What is Tetherin how does HIV counter it?
Tetherin is an innate anti-viral cellular factor that blocks release of virus and is inhibited by vpu (HIV protein).
What is LEDGF how does HIV counter it?
LEDGF is an innate anti-viral cellular factor that tethers HIV to host chromatin and HIV takes advantage of this with integrase, which facilitates its integration once it is tethered to host chromatin.
Why is HIV more easily transmitted in sexual interaction?
Virus enters through breaks in mucosal epithelia
What happens in the first few hours post-infection?
Virus crosses barrier through microbreaks in epithelia where it meets DCs.
What happens in the first 3-4 days post-infection?
Local expansion occurs, DCs present virus to T cells, resulting in productive infection of activated T cells and also production of latent infections in resting CD4+ T cells.
What happens days-weeks after infection?
Dessemination to lymphatic tissue. LN is perfect environment for HIV viral replication as it has plenty of DCs and activated T cells.
What happens 1-2 weeks after infection?
Local proliferation Peak plasma virus levels CD4+ memory cell loss
What happens weeks-months-years after infection?
Partial immune control with neutralising Abs
Or can develop into AIDS