BIOB51H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Reverse Transcriptase, Viral Load, Thymidine
10 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
During chronic phase, you have a viral load that is detectable by blood test. Treatments for hiv generally target the ability for virus to enter the cell or on reverse transcriptase. Azt provides individuals with a drug that looks like thymidine and can fool reverse transcriptase and add it to developing chain of dna; can compromise. Viral loads spiked after 6 moths when treatments stopped working. Azt acts as an agent of selection on hiv in individuals body. In some virions left, mutations arose that allowed them to replicate themselves; resistance evolved. The higher the resistance, the higher dose of azt required. Mutant form of hiv that won"t mistake azt for thymidine will be favoured. Hiv populations in bodies shifted from wild type to mutant strain. Mutations that are favoured tend to effect active site of reverse transcriptase molecule. Beneficial mutation is beneficial for the hiv, not the host.
