HIV Flashcards
What is the hiv structure
Lipid envelope with attachment proteins
Capsid that encloses 2 strands of rna and reverse transcriptase
What does reverse transcriptase do
Turns rna into dna
How does HIV work and how can it lead to aids
Infecting t helper cells and replicating inside t helper cells using its cellular machinery, eventually the cells swell and burst destroying the cell. Overtime the number of T cells decrease drastically causing aids
What is aids
Caused by failure of the immmune system as a large number of T cells are destroyed, allowing opportunistic infections
How are new viruses made after hiv infects a cell
Viral dna is made
Viral dna is inserted into host dna to make viral proteins and more viruses
Viruses leave the cell
How does hiv replicate inside T cells
RNA converted into dna by reverse transcriptase
DNA inserted to t helper cell
DNA transcribed into hiv rna
HIV mRNA translates into new viral proteins
3 ways hiv can be transmitted
Having unprotected sex with an infected person
Sharing needles for drug use with an infected person
Mother to child through placenta or breast milk (vertical transmitting)
Why do antibiotics not treat aids
Antibiotics target bacterial cell walls and viruses don’t have cell walls made out of peptidogylacan
Viruses lack their own metabolic pathways and rely on host cells so are undetected by antibiotics
How can a virus remain dormant in a person who has aids
Remain dormant as dna in host cells
