HIV Flashcards
How is HIV transmitted?
Bodily secretions (STI)
Infected blood (intravenous drug use)
What happens during the first 2-6 weeks of an HIV infection?
Sometimes patients have flu-like symptoms
CD4 T cell levels dip below 500 cells/mL
What is the asymptomatic phase of HIV?
Seroconversion
CD4 T cell levels slowly decline over 2-20 years
What is seroconversion?
Antibodies to virus are present in serum
What is the symptomatic phase of HIV?
CD4 T cell levels dip below 500 cells/mL and opportunistic infections take hold
What is AIDS?
When CD4 T cell levels reach 0 cells/mL and quickly results in death
What does the membrane surface of HIV carry?
Envelope glycoprot3eins
What does each capsid in HIV carry?
Two RNAs and reverse transcriptase which copies RNA into DNA
Where does HIV undergo fusion?
At the cell membrane
What does HIV bind to on the T cell?
CD4 and a chemokine co-receptor
What happens when the viral envelope fuses with the cell membrane?
The capsid uncoats itself and the viral genome enters the cell
What does an HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein contain?
Conserved regions
Variable regions
Fusion peptide
The extracellular part of the protein is gp120 while the intracellular part is gp41
What type of people are resistant to HIV infections?
People with a mutation in CCR5
What cell types of infected by HIV?
Cells that have CD4 and the chemokine receptor
What is an alternate chemokine receptor that HIV can bind to?
Cxcr4