Unit 12 assignment 3- Biology- Nicola
Task A- Treatment regime for HIV
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus which attacks the body’s immune system, damaging
the CD4 white blood cells. HIV takes over your CD4 T cells by the HIV fusing with the CD4 t cells. This
then leads to the genetic material and its HIV enzyme into your T cells. The single stranded RNA then
gets reverse-transcript and it eventually gets made into double DNA. This double stranded DNA then
gets taken into our nucleus and then goes into our DNA by an integrase enzyme. Then our cells
release viral RNA. Some of this will be the RNA genome of the HIV and some of it will be viral MRNA,
which then goes on to get translated into a viral polyprotein and this gets cleaved up by HIV
protease, and then it turns into new HIV particles which are now mature and really infectious. HIV is
the pathogen; the human immunodeficiency virus is the pathogen which attacks the immune system
and the pathogen causes AIDS disease.
Treatment: Antiretroviral drugs
The treatment that patients will have if they are infected with HIV is an antiretroviral drug.
Antiretroviral drugs are medicines which are given to HIV patients. Antiretroviral drugs work by
stopping HIV from replicating in the body. Antiretroviral drugs are specific to retro viruses and they
are usually taken orally for a continuous amount of time to prevent the spreading of disease, along
with reducing symptoms and preventing spreading to other people. Antiretroviral drugs are usually
delivered orally, ranging from a patient taking 1-4 tablets a day. When you take antiretroviral
medication, the levels of HIV in your blood are reduced so that it cannot damage your immune
system. As long as you continue to take antiretroviral medication, you will have low levels of HIV in
your blood- However, if you stop taking them the levels of HIV in your blood can rise up. This is why
it’s important to take these continuously.
Antiretroviral drugs also stop people from getting really sick when they are infected with HIV, they
can reduce the amount of HIV levels in somebody’s body to low undetectability levels and they also
make it very unlikely to transmit HIV because of the low levels of HIV from antiviral treatment. The
purpose of antiviral drugs are to keep people with HIV from getting really sick and to keep viral levels
low to avoid transmission. The reason antiretroviral drugs do not cure HIV is because there are a lot
of infected CD4 that get established really early on in an infection, and then they lay low. So, they
avoid detection by our immune system so that we cannot pick them out and they can spontaneously
activate and start producing new infectious particles, so this makes it very hard to treat the infected
particles. They also avoid the effects of antiretroviral drugs so we cannot completely cure HIV
because of this.
There are 6 main groups of antiretroviral drugs and these 6 different types all work slightly
differently in order to prevent HIV from spreading and prevent HIV from working properly. There are
fusion inhibitors and these work by preventing HIV from binding to and entering our CD4 cells, so
they work by sticking to specific proteins that HIV needs to enter our cells and they stop this fusion
step from happening. We also have CCR5 antagonists, which work by binding to the CCR5 protein
which means that the HIV will have a hard time entering our cells as the CCR5 antagonists sits beside
the CD4 protein. If you take CCR5 antagonists, it induces a change that impedes CCR5 interaction
with HIV gp120 and this prevents HIV entering into the host’s cell. If some HIV does fuse, patients
can take a nucleoside reverse transcript inhibitor (NRTI). A nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor
is a class of antiviral drugs which is used to inhibit activity of reverse transcriptase. NRTI works by
, using our nucleosides and attaching them together end by end, and this builds a strand of DNA. The
NRTI acts as a decoy nucleoside so it is just like one of our normal nucleoside’s, but it is missing a key
component which makes it impossible for HIV’s reverse transcriptase to attach another nucleoside
to the end. If it cannot do that then the DNA cannot be built. There are drugs that can gum up
reverse transcriptase and these drugs are called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
(nnrtis). Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors work by binding and blocking HIV reverse
transcriptase. The non-nucleoside transcriptase inhibitors do not enter the cell nucleus or interfere
with the DNA. Instead, they bind directly to the HIV’s reverse transcriptase enzyme and inhibits any
of its activity.
Integrase inhibitors are another class of antiretroviral drug that is taken. An integrase inhibitor is
designed to block the action of HIV integrase, which then prevents the virus from multiplying in the
blood. Integrase inhibitors work by preventing the formation of covalent bonds within a host’s DNA.
This then prevents the incorporation of HIV into the host genome. HIV needs integrase to replicate,
and integrase inhibitors work by stopping the production of integrase. Without this integrase
enzyme, HIV cannot take over the CD4 cells to copy itself and this affects the life cycle of HIV.
The last category of retroviral drug used to treat and prevent the symptoms and spreading of HIV are
protease inhibitors. Protease inhibitors work by binding to proteolytic enzymes and this blocks their
ability to function. By blocking proteases, HIV cannot continue to reproduce itself as the virus cannot
reproduce without protease.
Task B- Report- Different types of antiviral, anti-retroviral, antibiotic, immunoglobin, oral rehydration
therapy, antimalarial, antifungal, and anthelmintic medications used to treat named diseases.
Treatment: Antiviral drugs- Antiviral drugs are a class of prescribed drugs which work against fighting
off viruses and treating viral infections. Antiviral drugs work against viruses because they work by
blocking the receptors so that the virus cannot bind and enter our healthy cells. Antiviral drugs work
by blocking receptors so that the virus cannot enter the healthy cells. Antiviral drugs also helps to
boost your immune system so that you are able to fight off a viral infection, as well as this, antiviral
drugs also lowers the viral load- this means it lowers the amount of active virus in the body.
When are antiviral drugs used?
Antiviral drugs are used on viruses such as coronavirus, Ebola, the flu, HIV and hepatitis B/C. Antiviral
treatment is used when a person is infected with a virus and it has the purpose of minimizing a
person’s symptoms whilst fighting off the virus. Antiviral treatment will be used and is most effective
when flu and fever symptoms start. If antiviral treatment is used early on, within the first 2 days/48
hours of becoming ill then the antiviral drugs will help to reduce your symptoms and can even
shorten the period of time that you are ill. Antiviral drugs can ease fever and flu like symptoms that
you have as well as shortening the days you are sick for, so for example- antiviral drugs can work
against viruses and eliminate the virus from your body.
Task A- Treatment regime for HIV
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus which attacks the body’s immune system, damaging
the CD4 white blood cells. HIV takes over your CD4 T cells by the HIV fusing with the CD4 t cells. This
then leads to the genetic material and its HIV enzyme into your T cells. The single stranded RNA then
gets reverse-transcript and it eventually gets made into double DNA. This double stranded DNA then
gets taken into our nucleus and then goes into our DNA by an integrase enzyme. Then our cells
release viral RNA. Some of this will be the RNA genome of the HIV and some of it will be viral MRNA,
which then goes on to get translated into a viral polyprotein and this gets cleaved up by HIV
protease, and then it turns into new HIV particles which are now mature and really infectious. HIV is
the pathogen; the human immunodeficiency virus is the pathogen which attacks the immune system
and the pathogen causes AIDS disease.
Treatment: Antiretroviral drugs
The treatment that patients will have if they are infected with HIV is an antiretroviral drug.
Antiretroviral drugs are medicines which are given to HIV patients. Antiretroviral drugs work by
stopping HIV from replicating in the body. Antiretroviral drugs are specific to retro viruses and they
are usually taken orally for a continuous amount of time to prevent the spreading of disease, along
with reducing symptoms and preventing spreading to other people. Antiretroviral drugs are usually
delivered orally, ranging from a patient taking 1-4 tablets a day. When you take antiretroviral
medication, the levels of HIV in your blood are reduced so that it cannot damage your immune
system. As long as you continue to take antiretroviral medication, you will have low levels of HIV in
your blood- However, if you stop taking them the levels of HIV in your blood can rise up. This is why
it’s important to take these continuously.
Antiretroviral drugs also stop people from getting really sick when they are infected with HIV, they
can reduce the amount of HIV levels in somebody’s body to low undetectability levels and they also
make it very unlikely to transmit HIV because of the low levels of HIV from antiviral treatment. The
purpose of antiviral drugs are to keep people with HIV from getting really sick and to keep viral levels
low to avoid transmission. The reason antiretroviral drugs do not cure HIV is because there are a lot
of infected CD4 that get established really early on in an infection, and then they lay low. So, they
avoid detection by our immune system so that we cannot pick them out and they can spontaneously
activate and start producing new infectious particles, so this makes it very hard to treat the infected
particles. They also avoid the effects of antiretroviral drugs so we cannot completely cure HIV
because of this.
There are 6 main groups of antiretroviral drugs and these 6 different types all work slightly
differently in order to prevent HIV from spreading and prevent HIV from working properly. There are
fusion inhibitors and these work by preventing HIV from binding to and entering our CD4 cells, so
they work by sticking to specific proteins that HIV needs to enter our cells and they stop this fusion
step from happening. We also have CCR5 antagonists, which work by binding to the CCR5 protein
which means that the HIV will have a hard time entering our cells as the CCR5 antagonists sits beside
the CD4 protein. If you take CCR5 antagonists, it induces a change that impedes CCR5 interaction
with HIV gp120 and this prevents HIV entering into the host’s cell. If some HIV does fuse, patients
can take a nucleoside reverse transcript inhibitor (NRTI). A nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor
is a class of antiviral drugs which is used to inhibit activity of reverse transcriptase. NRTI works by
, using our nucleosides and attaching them together end by end, and this builds a strand of DNA. The
NRTI acts as a decoy nucleoside so it is just like one of our normal nucleoside’s, but it is missing a key
component which makes it impossible for HIV’s reverse transcriptase to attach another nucleoside
to the end. If it cannot do that then the DNA cannot be built. There are drugs that can gum up
reverse transcriptase and these drugs are called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
(nnrtis). Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors work by binding and blocking HIV reverse
transcriptase. The non-nucleoside transcriptase inhibitors do not enter the cell nucleus or interfere
with the DNA. Instead, they bind directly to the HIV’s reverse transcriptase enzyme and inhibits any
of its activity.
Integrase inhibitors are another class of antiretroviral drug that is taken. An integrase inhibitor is
designed to block the action of HIV integrase, which then prevents the virus from multiplying in the
blood. Integrase inhibitors work by preventing the formation of covalent bonds within a host’s DNA.
This then prevents the incorporation of HIV into the host genome. HIV needs integrase to replicate,
and integrase inhibitors work by stopping the production of integrase. Without this integrase
enzyme, HIV cannot take over the CD4 cells to copy itself and this affects the life cycle of HIV.
The last category of retroviral drug used to treat and prevent the symptoms and spreading of HIV are
protease inhibitors. Protease inhibitors work by binding to proteolytic enzymes and this blocks their
ability to function. By blocking proteases, HIV cannot continue to reproduce itself as the virus cannot
reproduce without protease.
Task B- Report- Different types of antiviral, anti-retroviral, antibiotic, immunoglobin, oral rehydration
therapy, antimalarial, antifungal, and anthelmintic medications used to treat named diseases.
Treatment: Antiviral drugs- Antiviral drugs are a class of prescribed drugs which work against fighting
off viruses and treating viral infections. Antiviral drugs work against viruses because they work by
blocking the receptors so that the virus cannot bind and enter our healthy cells. Antiviral drugs work
by blocking receptors so that the virus cannot enter the healthy cells. Antiviral drugs also helps to
boost your immune system so that you are able to fight off a viral infection, as well as this, antiviral
drugs also lowers the viral load- this means it lowers the amount of active virus in the body.
When are antiviral drugs used?
Antiviral drugs are used on viruses such as coronavirus, Ebola, the flu, HIV and hepatitis B/C. Antiviral
treatment is used when a person is infected with a virus and it has the purpose of minimizing a
person’s symptoms whilst fighting off the virus. Antiviral treatment will be used and is most effective
when flu and fever symptoms start. If antiviral treatment is used early on, within the first 2 days/48
hours of becoming ill then the antiviral drugs will help to reduce your symptoms and can even
shorten the period of time that you are ill. Antiviral drugs can ease fever and flu like symptoms that
you have as well as shortening the days you are sick for, so for example- antiviral drugs can work
against viruses and eliminate the virus from your body.
