Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Reverse Transcriptase, Central Dogma Of Molecular Biology, Integrase
25 Sep 2018
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Hiv is much more common in africa than other parts of the world because hiv first spread to humans in africa, so africa is ground zero for the virus. Hiv originated from chimpanzees, only acted as a cold to them, much more dangerous in humans. It"s hard to create antiviral drugs without damaging host cells because they are obligate parasites. Retroviruses disobey central dogma of molecular biology: retroviruses with an rna genome have an extra step in their life cycle where reverse transcription occurs (no proof reading, very prone to making mistakes. Mutation proposes, selection disposes : genetic variation is continuously arising, regardless of environment, changing the environment affects the fate of genetic variation. Treat each patient with several drugs at the same time (drug cocktail) to stall the resistance to the drugs. Resistance to one drug is inevitable: resistance to many drugs is less likely.
