1. Plate 87 Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

2. Syndrome Group of symptoms characteristic of a specific disease Linked by a common cause Greek for “run together”

3. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Contains: – 2 strands of RNA – Reverse transcriptase – Envelope – Glycoprotein “spikes” (gp120 & gp41)

4. Surface Proteins gp120 and gp41 are surface proteins that act as the binding sites of the virus Binds virus to T-lymphocytes (T-cells) T-cell

5. Virus Union Virus binds to the CD4 and CCR5 receptor sites on T-cells

6. T-Cell Infection RNA  DNA  RNA  proteins Virus RNA (vRNA) can have latency period

8. Early Stage HIV Incubation period is a few days to a few weeks Individual then begins to display flu-like symptoms: – Fever – Headache – Fatigue – Enlarged lymph nodes These symptoms may then fade for a couple months or many years

9. AIDS After flu-like symptoms, the virus continues to weaken the individual’s immune system More severe symptoms: – Weight loss – Persistent yeast infections – Skin rashes or flaky skin – Pelvic inflammatory disease – Short term memory loss – Severe herpes infection appear Diagnosed with AIDS when the CD4 T-cell count drops below 200 per µL of blood

10. Transmission Must be in living human T-cells Virus is very fragile (will inactivate in as few as 30 seconds) Desiccation and temperature change can inactivate the virus, as well

11. Therapy Options Antiretroviral therapy reduces the number of infected cells – allows individual to preserve their immune response and lower viral load on their body Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy – a combination of 3 or more highly effective antiretroviral drugs (Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors, Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors, Protease Inhibitors)