Biology of HIV

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The first discovery of HIV was in the early 1980s. Was first named grid, later in 1984 given the name HIV due to the fact that it was being caused by a human retrovirus. Both Dr. Luc Montagnier of the Institute in Paris and Dr. Gallo from the Institute in Washington were racing to find the disease that was going around. In 1983 Dr. Luc Montagnier found the virus he had called LAV ( Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus) and published it in May 1983 so that other could research it. In December 1983 Dr. Gallo published a paper that established this new virus as HIV-type of retrovirus that caused AIDS. When Dr. Gallo had a press conference at the National Cancer Institute to announce that he a lone had found the virus he did not mention that Dr. Luc Montagnier had found the same virus. Even though they had agreed that they were both going to get credit for the new discovery when the press came along no word of the French was mention. That same day Dr. Gallo said that he had found the cause for the AIDS. On 1985 Dr. Gallo and Dr. Luc Montagnier had agreed to go to court so they could split the credit. but this argument lasted until 1987. HIV is a type of retrovirus this means that it is a single strand of RNA so it goes from RNA to DNA and back to DNA, when usually it goes from DNA to RNA. RNA is ideal for storage but once the immune system has learned to recognize a virus the body know how to fight it and this causes the making of antibodies. Since RNA can change the virus so that the body could not recognize it then it must mutate. this is called the mutagenic factor which allows RNA viruses to mutate rapidly and they frequently change their structure of the virus. These kind of mutation make it impossible for the immune system to fight the virus. HIV seems to target CD4 cells or helper T-Cells. This cell is used to activate and function of B-Cells. It targets cells in the immune system that have the protein called CD4 on their surface. These cells are called CD4-positive cells.