Over 36 million people have died from AIDS so far. AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. But where does HIV originate from? And how has HIV evolved over the decades?
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HIV or the human deficiency virus infects humans and causes AIDS. It is estimated that over 38 million people are infected with HIV today. HIV-1, the dominant form of HIV, has probably transmitted from apes to humans in the 1920s in Kinshasa in the Democratic republic of Congo. Over the next years, first reports of possible HIV infections surfaced although the virus has not identified. It is likely that babies in Germany, a Norwegian sailor and his familiy and others have been infected with HIV and died of AIDS in the following decades. HIV and AIDS, however, were only recognized in the 1980s when large clusters of people died in the United States. Finally, HIV was isolated by three independent researchers and was found to caus AIDS.
. When HIV enters the body it circulates in the blood and starts to infect a special type of immune cell called CD4+ T cell. HIV then converts its genetic information (RNA) into DNA using a protein called reverse transcriptase. HIV integrates this DNA into the host cell and, after a while, produces new particles which leads to the slow destruction of the immune system. If that happens for a long period of time, AIDS can occur and opportunistic infections leads to serious complications.
HIV evolves through mutations or changes in its genes. It primarily uses the error prone conversion of RNA into DNA which is made by reverse transcriptase and template switching. Through these mechanisms, HIV has become highly diverse throughout the years and can sometimes become drug resistant or more infectious.
For your reading (google the terms to find the publications):
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doi:10.1016/j.virusres.2012.06.015
doi: 10.1097/COH.0000000000000137
doi.org/10.4081/idr.2013.s1.e6
doi.org/10.1186/1742-6405-4-11
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