HNRS 1007 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Bubonic Plague, Nevirapine, Dna Replication
Document Summary
The genome of hiv: very simple genome. We understand this virus better than any living organism on the planet, but we still can"t cure it. Attacks the t cells (thus the immunodeficiency virus: attaches to proteins naturally found on your t cells, the cd4/ccr5 protein receptor. Those with a mutant ccr5 receptor are called long-term non-progressors". Will not develop aids for several decades b/c the virus has difficulty attaching to the protein. In the anglo-saxon population, 5-8% have mutation. May be a left-over from the bubonic plague--- those who didn"t develop it had mutation, thus concentration of mutation in population increased (people with it lived to reproduce) Changes the central dogma ( dna makes rna makes proteins ) b/c viruses must make extra step: rna makes dna makes rna makes proteins. Most hiv drugs aim to stop a singular step in the hiv reproduction process, thus breaking the cycle: nrtis: nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors.
