StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System - Term Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
Disease progression: Effect of HIV on the Immune System Thesis Statement The aim of this paper is to have a detailed look at several aspects of HIV, its nature, origin, effect on immune system, mode of spread and means of prevention. Introduction HIV has been one of the major challenges for microbiologists, pharmacologists, doctors and healthcare providers all over the world…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.3% of users find it useful
Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System"

Download file to see previous pages

Research is continuing and scientists and researchers are hopeful that they will be able to find out a cure for this multi-faceted virus but so far, no major breakthrough has been reached. What we do know is that this is an RNA retrovirus with immense genetic variation and mutation rate. It has two strains, HIV-1 and HIV-2, and they both show tropism for macrophages and CD4+ T cells and destroy them which culminate in complete paralysis of the body’s immune system. Multi-organ diseases start to develop until opportunistic infections become life-threatening.

This is the last stage of the disease known as AIDS. Prevention is the only successful management of this disease. Since sexual pathway is the most common route of transmission, protected sex with limited sexual partners, abstinence from reusing syringes and screening of pregnant women as well as blood donors is the most effective way to prevent this disease. Let us take an in-depth look at HIV and disease progression. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus which causes a syndrome of immunodeficiency, AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

Thus HIV is the causative agent for AIDS. What is HIV? HIV belongs to the family of retroviruses, genus lentivirus, which are typically associated with long incubation periods and chronic opportunistic infections. They are transmitted as single-strand, enveloped RNA viruses that enter human cells, use their own reverse transcriptase enzyme to change into double-stranded DNA, enter the nucleus of the cell and become incorporated into human DNA using integrase enzyme. This process can be reversed to produce single stranded-RNA viruses which are released into the blood and go on to enter other normally functioning cells.

What sets HIV apart from all other viruses is the massive amount of genetic variability that it shows. This is due to the extremely rapid replication cycle that it follows. This can be understood by the fact that HIV generates 1010 virions everyday, has a mutation rate of about 3?10-5 per nucleotide base per cycle of replication and uses reverse transcriptase as a replication agent (Robertson, Hahn, & PM, 1995). Thus, the chances of genetic variability are higher than any other virus known to science as yet.

This is a major hurdle in developing a curative medicine against this virus as we shall see later. There are two strains of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the most common type and is found in all parts of the world. While both the strains eventually culminate in AIDS, HIV-1 is said to be more virulent and easily transmissible which is it is found all over the world. HIV-2 is relatively milder initially, has a longer incubation period and is not as easily transmissible. As a result, it is found in certain parts of Africa only.

One of the most important characteristics of HIV that form the core of their disease causing process is their tropism. Tropism refers to the tendency of a virus to infect a certain type of cell. In case of HIV, this type of cell belongs to the immune system but more on that later. Origin and Spread of HIV There are different theories as to how the virus evolved into its modern form. All of these theories conclude on the fact that the

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System Term Paper”, n.d.)
Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System Term Paper. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/biology/1461594-diseases-progression-effect-of-hiv-virus-on-the
(Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System Term Paper)
Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System Term Paper. https://studentshare.org/biology/1461594-diseases-progression-effect-of-hiv-virus-on-the.
“Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System Term Paper”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/biology/1461594-diseases-progression-effect-of-hiv-virus-on-the.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Diseases Progression: Effect of HIV Virus on the Immune System

The Biology of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

The paradox of HIV is that while the immune system cells effectively destroy virus particles, the virus continues to reproduce itself such that more viral particles are produced.... In addition, the immune system continues to destroy cells infected by the virus but more cells are then produced as replacements.... Eventually, the patient becomes infected with something as simple as the common cold or flu and does not have the immune system capabilities to fight it off....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

Do administration times of anti-retro viral therapies affect their efficacy

Although this is sometimes determined by the time diagnosis of the disease with respect to the progress of the virus, often times, even with early diagnosis, the decision to begin administering of anti-retro drugs was not uniform.... Jens Lundgren, a physician at the Copenhagen hiv Programme and Dr.... Phillips, a professor of epidemiology reported in a British Journal of Medicine article that had examined the indirect relationship discovered regarding the assessment of the efficacy of anti-hiv drugs....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

AIDS in United States

The social impact of hiv has been well documented and widely distributed.... Because of hiv's ability to evolve at such a massive pace, it quickly counters selective treatments.... This is the reason that patient drug therapy includes what is commonly referred to as a ‘drug cocktail' (numerous types of hiv drugs used in tandem) which acts to delay the further evolution of the resistant HIV strains.... The essay focuses on HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) which leads to AIDS (Acquired immune Deficiency Syndrome) as the most infectious disease that has emerged in more than a century....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The Surprising Facts about HIV

Often, a virus is completely eliminated by the immune system.... Viral infections in human as well as animal hosts usually result in an immune response and disease.... A virus is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell.... A virus is usually characterised by three features, nucleic acid genome covered by protective protein , can reproduce or… virus diseases inflict a heavy illness and economic damage on humans and animals and can injure agricultural crops....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Discovery of Epstein-Barr Virus

Professor Epstein and Yvonne Barr were responsible for the discovery of this virus, which explains the name that is an adoption of the family names of these two scientists (Epstein, Achong, and Barr 702).... Epstein, Barr, and Achong the presence of a virus in the cultured specimen and the three published their discovery the same year with the development of antibodies and mononucleosis taking place later.... Consequently, the three scientists were able to observe the development of antibodies to the virus (Robertson 18)....
7 Pages (1750 words) Research Paper

A Protective Effect against HIV

Hepatitis G virus (HGV) or GB virus C (GBV-C) is a recently identified RNA virus, which does not cause any detectable liver disease, and in fact, actually replicates in the bone marrow and spleen.... Hepatitis G virus (HGV) or GB virus C (GBV-C) is an RNA virus, which was recently identified.... The virus has a positive-stranded, linear RNA genome (Sarrazin, Roth & Zeuzem, 1998)....
15 Pages (3750 words) Assignment

The Effects of AIDS on the United States

he hiv virus made an evolutionary jump from chimpanzees to humans at some point before 1970.... The social impact of hiv has been well documented and widely distributed which has served to educate the public and acted to stem the tide of the epidemic.... A hybrid of the monkey virus (SIV) spread through infected chimpanzees and a mutated form was eventually transmitted to people in the form of hiv-1.... Because of hiv's ability to evolve at such a massive pace, it quickly counters selective treatments....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment

AIDS: Effects on the Immune System

In the paper “AIDS: Effects on the immune system” the author discusses persons with AIDS, as well as other forms of HIV.... Common diseases that the body would normally be able to fight off, such as the common cold or the flu, present the same danger to a person with AIDS… The author states that the immune system becomes so weak that it becomes unable to fight off any disease that may threaten the body.... the immune system that helps to protect a person's body consists of white blood cells and antibodies that go after foreign organisms that enter the body that could cause other diseases or illnesses; these white blood cells are CD4 lymphocytes (Gilden & Kort, 2009)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us