Detailed Overview of HIV Essay -- Biology AIDS

Since the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic 15 years ago, the virus has infected more than 47 million people in the world. With more than 2.2 million deaths in 1998, HIV/AIDS has now become the fourth leading cause of mortality and its impact is going to increase. Over 95% of all cases and 95% of AIDS deaths occur in the developing world, mostly among young adults and increasingly in women. HIV can be prevented in many ways, but they are not always followed. People die when they don't play it safe. That's why we have to spread the word on prevention. There are three main ways that HIV can be spread: 1. sexual intercourse 2. intravenous drugs 3. blood transfusions (which are very rare now because all blood is tested) HIV is spreading like wild fire among adolescents because they don't believe it can happen to them. Sixty-one percent of 14-21 year olds are engaged in sexual intercourse. The problem we have to deal with is the spreading of this disease among our generation. Scientists are trying to develop a cure for the AIDS virus. There are three parts to finding the cure. The three parts are: 1. To devise a drug that will kill the HIV virus once it enters the body. 2. To create a vaccine that would prevent the disease. 3. To educate people world wide about the dangers of AIDS and how to prevent the HIV infection. In humans, the immune system acts as a line of defense against foreign organisms in the body. Though the immune system functions throughout the body, its production centers from certain key organs in the body. Various specialized cells are produced by these organs and comprise the immune system. For example: * Lymphocytes o B Cells o T Cells * Macropha... ...CR5. The CCR5 demonstrated fusion for all of the macrophages-tropic isolates but hardly at all for the T-tropic isolates, further supporting previous conclusions on the role of CCR5. Finally the researchers took a northern blot of CCR5 to analysis its RNA. CCR5 RNA was not found in the human cell lines that were tested. The human cell lines were chosen with the criteria that they were not susceptible to M-tropic isolates. Their test further supported the fact that Fusin was used as a receptor for T-tropic virus strains, and when the two strains were compared CCR5 and Fusin are the only fusion cofactors for HIV. Understanding these coreceptors is very important in slowing down the progression of the HIV virus. The HIV virus is irreversible and can only be slowed down. If they can learn more about how the virus enters cells they might be able to deter the virus.