AIDS: Signs to Management of the Disease

Abstract

AIDS is the most advanced stages of HIV infection in which there is severe loss of body’s cellular immunity, greatly lowering the resistance to infection or malignancy. It is caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In AIDS, Acquired means that people are not born with the disease. They get it after being infected with the HIV virus. Immuno means the immune system. The immune system is the part of the body that fights off disease. Deficiency refers to not enough. An immuno-deficiency is a problem where the immune system is damaged and cannot fight off diseases to keep the body healthy. Syndrome is a set of signs and symptoms that appear together and characterize a disease or medical condition [1-3]. HIV is a retrovirus. Retroviruses have RNA as their genetic material possessing an enzyme, called reverse transcriptase that gives them the unique property of transcribing their RNA into DNA after entering a cell. The retroviral DNA can then integrate into the chromosomal DNA of the host cell, to be expressed there. The virus primarily infects the components of the human immune system such as CD4 + T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells and directly or indirectly destroys majority of these cells. As a consequence, the human body can’t fight off infections and disease which leads to AIDS [4,5]. The HIV-1 virion is an enveloped structure containing 72 external spikes. These spikes are formed by the two major viral-envelope proteins, gp120 and gp41. (Gp stands for glycoprotein-the proteins are linked to sugars-and the number refers to the mass of the protein, in thousands of daltons.) The HIV-1 lipid bilayer is also studded with various host proteins, including class I and class II major histocompatibility complex molecules, acquired during virion budding. The cone-shaped core of HIV-1 contains p17 as the matrix protein and p25, p6, p7 (or p9) as the nucleocapsid proteins each of which is proteolytically cleaved from a 53 kDa gag precursor by the HIV-1 protease. The phosphorylated p25 polypeptide forms the chief component of the inner shelf of the nucleocapsid, whereas the p17 protein is associated with the inner surface of the lipid bilayer and stabilizes the exterior and interior components of the virion. The p7 protein binds directly to the genomic RNA through a zinc-finger structural motif and together with p9 forms the nucleoid core. The retroviral core contains two copies of the single-stranded HIV-1 genomic RNA that is associated with the various preformed viral enzymes, including the reverse transcriptase, integrase, ribonuclease, and protease [6].