Chimpanzees Essay

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA): It is helical double stranded nucleic acid made of complementary purine and pyramidines supported by deoxy ribose sugars and phospodiester structures. (5 Prime to 3 prime). Eukaryotic DNA material.

This history of HIV/AIDS as a blurry timeline before the 1980’s since that was around the time reports came in which eventually become an HIV report. The origin of HIV can be traced back to the early part of the century. Some believe that in the 1920’s chimpanzees from the Congo came into contact with humans (Avert, 2016). Though reports were not identified as HIV until the 1980’s, the belief that HIV was already scattered throughout four other continents may have been incident (Avert, 2016). Even though for the past 30 years the world has been diligently working to find a cure and pushing prevention, we are still struggling each year with increasing diagnosis. The beginning of HIV did end with lots of death, but now with our improved antiviral medication there is hope for many.

On encountering a host cell, the retrovirus attaches itself to receptors on the surface of the host cell’s membrane. Once inside the cell, the capsid opens, releasing RNA and reverse transcriptase into the cell’s cytoplasm.

Numerous species of monkey were infected with the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) or Simian-Human Immunodeficiency Virus (SHIV). The macaques were the primary group of monkeys infected. “Macaques are physiologically and immunologically similar to humans so there is a significant advantage over rodents and other species. The pathogenic SIV infection of macaques can lead to a disease that is called “simian AIDS;” it is similar in many respects to the disease caused by HIV-1 in humans” (Evans and Silvestri). Using the macaques allows different treatments to occur on the experimental level that cannot be conducted in humans. The treatments have provided and continue to provide “essential information to reach a deeper understanding of the biology of HIV infection and AIDS” (Evans and Silvestri). Non-human primates are easier to use than humans do to the ability to control the timing, dose and route of the virus as well as collecting the samples from tissues that are difficult to collect from humans. Macaques can be infected by vaginal or rectal routes or by oral routes. Macaques have been used to test various “microbicides and vaccines for mucosal protection against HIV acquisition” (Evans and Silvestri). By using non-human primate models for studies of AIDS, many results have been

When a chimpanzee has the virus it is called SIV. A chimpanzee can live safely and unharmed with SIV for a lifetime. Unfortunately the transmission and mutation of the virus likely came from the blood into a cut or consumption of the chimpanzee. The virus then would be passed from human to human through blood, sex, and even breast milk. HIV was discovered in West Africa in 1983 and was shown to bring the carriers life to an end within nine to eleven years after contracting the virus.

It is believed that the first case of HIV/AIDs was first recorded somewhere in West Africa somewhere in the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then, it has spread across central Africa, undetected for a long time. But the question that has bewildered many, is how HIV spread in the first place. According to “Natural Transfer Theory”, HIV was spread to humans through chimpanzees. “Africans have been killing and eating monkey for at least fifty thousand years” (43). It was common for small African communities to hunt and eat chimpanzees. Chimpanzees were said to have “SIVs, simian immunodeficiency viruses that closely resembles HIV” (41). The virus is said to have spread to humans through these infected chimpanzees. The blood of these chimpanzees could have

Where it is still unclear the origins of viruses, one thing is clear, they are a very important part of the horizontal gene transfer, which drastically increases genetic diversity.

To begin with, many scientists found that HIV is related to a similar virus found in chimpanzee after conducting many researched they believe the virus was passed down from monkey hunters to human. Moreover, the first known case of HIV was reported in 1920 in

virus” (AAV), because they are able to “insert their genetic material at a specific site

In the 1920's, HIV crossed from chimps to humans. There is evidence on how, when and where HIV first began to cause illness in humans. HIV is a type of lentivirus, which means it attacks the immune system. In a similar way, the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) attacks the immune systems of monkeys and apes. There is even a theory on hunters, in the Democratic Republic of Congo eating monkey and transfer the virus. These well-known diseases, travel from Africa, Kinshasa to the United States. Started off being called GRID also known as gay-related immune deficiency introduced to united state in 1981. This disease has taken 121 healthy gay man lives in the U.S. since the mid-1970s. Scientists began to notice clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

A retrovirus infects a cell by connecting itself and then fusing with the host cell. Once it is connected and fused, a retrovirus can transform its RNA into DNA supporting the reproduction of it, also known as reverse transcription (College, 2013). After reproduction happens, all the new mutated cells leave the host cell to start this process all over within other healthy cells in the body (College, 2013).

HIV is an RNA virus that is part of the retrovirus family called Lentivirinae. These specific retroviruses cause chronic diseases that progress at a slow rate in the organism (Beck-Sague

material of some viruses. RNA molecules are like DNA. They have a long chain of

     Genetic information would be rendered useless if the stored information did not have a way of reaching the desired focal area. Since protein synthesis occurs in the cytoplasm and the DNA must remain in the nucleus, a way of transporting the code is essential. This comes in the form of messenger ribonucleic acid or m-RNA. Since the information on the DNA must stay the same on the m-RNA, the two have to be very similar. There are three major differences between RNA and DNA. RNA is only a single strand. The five carbon sugar of RNA is ribose opposed to deoxyribose and in RNA the pyrimidine uracil (U) replaces DNA's pyrimidine thymine (T). Since RNA is produced from DNA, the nucleotides of RNA can hold the same information as the nucleotides of DNA because the code for amino acids is centered around the RNA structure.