Informational Brochure Paper on Anti Retroviral Therapy

Kirton, C. (2007, April 2007). Nurses at the Forefront of a Pandemic: HIV/AIDS Nurses. National Student Nurse’s

Dr. N.A.S states that one of the antiretrovirals blocks translation of RNA into the proteins required to make new viruses. Some of the current antiretrovirals include reverse transcriptase, fusion and entry, protease, and integrase inhibitors;6,10 however there is not an inhibitor that blocks translation of rna into proteins on the market. Targeting inhibitors specific to HIV has made ARVs increasingly effective and less harmful to humans.

Transcriptase is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of DNA from an RNA template in reverse transcription.

The virus fuses with the cell’s plasma membrane. The capsid proteins are removed, releasing the viral proteins and RNA. Reverse transcriptase catalyzes the synthesis of a DNA strand complementary to the viral RNA. Reverse transcriptase catalyzes the synthesis of a second DNA strand complementary to the first. The double-stranded DNA is incorporated as a provirus into the cell’s DNA. Proviral genes are transcribed into RNA molecules, which serve as genomes for the next viral generation and as mRNAs for translation into viral proteins. The viral proteins include capsid proteins and reverse transcriptase (made in the cytosol) and envelope glycoproteins (made in the ER). Vesicles transport the glycoproteins from the ER to the cell’s plasma membrane. Capsids are assembled around viral genomes and reverse transcriptase molecules. New viruses bud off from the host cell.

CD4 is a glycoprotein found on the surface of immune cells such as T helper cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. HIV infects cells of the immune system called T lymphocytes (T cells) and macrophages. HIV has an envelope and contains two copies of single-stranded RNA as the genome. Within the viral capsid are important viral enzymes called reverse transcriptase, integrase, and protease. The HIV virus has a spike protein that is called gp120, and the host cell receptor is CD4+. HIV belongs to a class of viruses called retroviruses. Retroviruses are RNA viruses, and to replicate or reproduce, they must make a DNA copy of their RNA through transcription and translation. It is the DNA genes that allow the

There are many health problems that we face globally and each of them are important for us to be aware of and to take precautions and measures to prevent and treat such diseases that affect our global population. HIV/AIDS is a disease that is spread through direct contact with body fluids from a person who is infected with the virus, these fluids include blood, semen, rectal fluid, vaginal fluids and breast milk. There are an approximate 35 million people living with the disease globally as of 2015 and about 1 million of those people are children under the age of 15 (Aids.gov, 2016). There are approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. living with the disease and of those individuals many became infected with HIV by needle or syringe sharing,

The lack of AIDs research and funding created a disaster for HIV diagnoses in the 1980s. Immune suppression therapy was not available to the public until the year 1985, and by then thousands of American citizens became diagnosed with HIV. (Lerner and Hombs 46) That year it was discovered that HIV attacked T-4 cells and the drug azidothymidine, or AZT, was tested on HIV positive individuals. AZT was a breakthrough for HIV research at the time because it was the start of an understanding of the

As have been described above, HIV can have a potential effect on immunological cells, which are important to protect the body from additional infections such as Tuberculosis (TB), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and other viral or bacterial infections. An effective treatment is needed to reconstruct what HIV has damaged. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a common treatment to stop the viral replication and decrease the disease progression, which may lead to a vast decline of the morbidity and mortality. The standard treatment involves a combination of at least three drugs; often known as a highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) where the most common types are Nucleoside reverse transcriptase

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, September). 2016 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance. Retrieved September 28, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats16/CDC_2016_STDS_Report-for 508WebSep21_2017_1644.pdf

When the HIV virus was identified in the 1980’s, many companies began to search for an antiviral drug but Burroughs Wellcome led the research effort. There were three drugs being tested by other companies as well including, AZT by Burroughs Wellcome, DDI by Bristol Myers and DDC by Hoffman-LaRoche. These drugs inhibit reproduction of HIV and slow the damage it causes.

The HIV virus must be have reverse transcriptase in order to duplicate the virus. AZT restricts the reverse effect of the transcriptase and it could potentially effect the transposition. This would mean that it must be reversed transferred into only completed DNA. That DNA would mean it must be double stranded and directly implanted into the target site. By preventing the reverse transcription with the AZT drug should stop the process at an early stage.

All retroviruses, including feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), produce an enzyme, reverse transcriptase, which permits them to insert copies of their own genetic material into that of the cells they have infected.

Azacitidine is a pyrimidine nucleoside analogue of cytidine (Figure 1). Chemotherapy drug used to treat a group of disorders that affect the bone marrow and blood, known as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).It is a pro drug. Once inside the cell it is uptaken by human concentrative nucleoside transporters. It is phosphorylated into monophosphate, di and tri phosphate forms. Azacytidine triphosphate is the active form which is incorporated into RNA. Azacytidine is approved for the treatment of adult patients who are not eligible for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with intermediate-2 and high-risk MDS, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) with 10%–29% marrow blasts and without myeloproliferative disorder and AML with 20%–30% blasts and

The HIV-1 virion is approximately 120 nm in diameter, roughly spherical, and is composed of two copies of a single stranded positive sense RNA enclosed by a capsid (24). The HIV-1 genome is less than 10 kb and encodes for more than nine different gene products. It encodes for 3 major structural protein genes: gag (group-specific antigen), pol (DNA polymerase), and env (Envelope), which code for major structural proteins and essential enzymes. Gag generates the mature Gag protein matrix (MA or p17), capsid (CA or p24), nucleocapsid (NC or p7), and p6, which encompass proteins for the basic infrastructure of the virus such as the inner core of the viral particle (25). Pol encodes for reverse transcriptase (RT), which enables the virus to reproduce, integrase (IN), which is necessary to integrate the viral double stranded DNA into the host genome, RNAse H, and HIV protease, which are all encapsulated in the core of the inner particle formed by the viral capsid protein p24 (25). Env encodes for glycoproteins of the outer membrane such as outer gp120 (which enables the virus to attach and fuse to cells of the host), and transmembrane gp41 that anchors the glycoprotein complex to the surface of the virion (25). Between the core and the envelope is the HIV matrix proteins which are composed of the viral protein p17 (23). HIV-1 also encodes for proteins with important regulatory elements (tat (Trans-Activator of Transcription) and rev

There can be one or more mutations that might block the working of the ARVS making them less effected or even completely ineffective. i.e. the virus will become resistant to any of the drugs and multiply. (Jen Gorgan and Ruth Suter;2009)