BMEN 515 Lecture Notes - T Helper Cell, Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, Regulatory T Cell

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Biomedical Engineering
• Course: BMEN 515
• Professor: William Huddleston

Document Summary

List of worst epidemic in human history according to the number of deaths: Influenza-50 to 100 million deaths-across the globe: black death (1347-1352)-took 30%-50% of the european population-about25 million lives, new world small pox-released in 1520 by european conquistadores-decimated native american populations across two continents. Aids is among the worst epidemics in human history. Sub-saharan africa is mostly affected by this epidemic. An hiv infection can be acquired only from someone else who already has it! Like all viruses, hiv is an intracellular parasite that cannot reproduce on its own. It invades specific types of cells in the human immune system. It uses enzymatic machinery and energy of these cells to make copies of itself, killing the host cells in the process. Hiv initiates its replication phase by latching onto two proteins on the surface of a host cell. Hiv binds to two surface proteins on the target cell called cd4 and coreceptor.