HIV Infects a T Cell

Also called

HIV · AIDS · human immunodeficiency virus · acquired immunodeficiency syndrome · retrovirus · helper T cell · T lymphocyte · CD4 · reverse transcriptase · provirus · viral replication · T cell count · anti-retroviral drugs · ART · ELISA · एड्स · एचआईवी · विषाणु

Topics

• AIDS (acquired immuno deficiency syndrome) is caused by HIV, a retrovirus with an RNA genome inside an envelope.
• HIV spreads through unprotected sex, infected blood, shared needles, and from an infected mother to her baby.
• The virus docks on CD4 receptors of helper T cells and macrophages, and its core enters the cell.
• Reverse transcriptase copies the viral RNA into DNA, the reverse of the usual DNA-to-RNA direction.
• The viral DNA joins the host cell’s DNA as a provirus and makes the cell produce new viruses.
• New viruses bud from the membrane and infect more helper T cells, so their number keeps falling.
• With few helper T cells left, infections such as TB (Mycobacterium), fungi and Toxoplasma take hold.
• HIV infection is confirmed by the ELISA test; there is no vaccine and no cure yet.
• Anti-retroviral drugs block reverse transcriptase, integration or virus assembly; they prolong life but do not cure.

About this model

A GLB file of about 588 KB, shown in Lably's 3D viewer and, on a phone, placed in your room with AR. Credit: Model, science and animation: Lably (built procedurally with three.js; no downloaded meshes). | CC BY 4.0. Original geometry and animation made for Lably.

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