Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Reverse Transcriptase, Antiviral Drug, Sub-Saharan Africa
28 Nov 2017
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Hiv occurs worldwide, but not all areas are equally affected: why is sub-saharan africa so hard hit, it is ground zero for the disease jumped from a chimpanzee host to a human host about 100 years ago. Evolutionary origin(s) of hiv: zoonotic disease, hiv-1m acquired from siv-infected chimp 1908, > 12 spill overs. Drugs: antiviral drugs generally have worse side effects than antibacterial and antifungals, because the virus has very little to target, the whole host cell is killed. We can make drugs that mess up the reverse transcription step because we don"t have to do it but the virus does. To minimize side effects of antivirus drugs, attack virus specific steps: virion enters host cell, reverse transcriptase viral dna. Integrase splices viral dna into host dna: transcription, translation, protease, new virions assemble, bud or burst out (bursting out kills cell), and enter bloodstream. Azt mimics thymidine and fools : azt is a molecule (nucleoside)
