Viral Genetic Variation Lab Analysis

As a disease, HIV, or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a blood-borne virus that is transmitted from person to person via sexual intercourse, mother to child, or intravenous drug paraphernalia. The virus itself causes, usually over a period of time, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. AIDS actually targets the immune system and causes an immunosuppression which makes people who have the virus more susceptible to cancers and infections. This is the most unique feature of the HIV/AIDS virus and is the most deadly since its implications are destructive if not properly treated (Moore 51). The significance of this disease is one that began in the 1980’s and initially was thought to be a virus only found within homosexual communities and was even originally called Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Virus. However, in 1981, it was found that the virus was spreading beyond the gay community when Blacks accounted for 25% of the HIV/AIDs population and a trend began where Blacks continued to contract HIV significantly more than

(2011) was a multi-continent, randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy on the speed of the disease process among HIV-1 infected and HIV-1 uninfected partners. In the study, 1,763 HIV mixed status couples were grouped into either early antiretroviral and delayed therapy groups. Inclusion criteria consisted of the HIV-1 infected participant having a CD4 count between 350 and 550 with no previous antiretroviral therapy usage, except to prevent mother-baby transmission. Participants attended three monthly sessions and then quarterly sessions until ill or requiring an additional amount of antiretroviral drugs (Cohen et al, 2011). The uninfected partners were tested each quarter for seroconversion, the period in time in which antibodies become detectable. The research study concluded that early antiretroviral therapy initiation had a greater effect on CD4 count than delayed antiretroviral therapy. The average CD4 count in the early therapy group originated at 400 and increased to 603 after 12 months of ART. A decline of CD4 cells were noted in the delayed group (Cohen et al, 2011). The authors concluded that a higher incidence of HIV transmission was noted in African countries and adverse effects were more likely to occur in the early therapy group. Early therapy had a positive effect on the HIV-1 uninfected and HIV-1 infected

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

The Anonymous virus, known as the Missouri virus, originated from the same genome of the Pennsylvania virus. The public in Missouri will experience the hemorrhoids fever symptoms but none will result in death. This classifies the virus as non-lethal, and will only cause harm resulting from the symptoms. As stated in the diagram, the virus in Alabama and Pennsylvania both correlated from the same viral genome. Providing information on the viral strain-modifying parts of the genome to accumulate different results in outbreaks. As done in previous transitioning periods of the virus, the strain can alter the sequence again resulting in possible death and higher percentages of death than the 30% in Alabama. The Missouri population are experiencing

When the parvovirus was first discovered it caused a great epidemic in the world, it caused very severe symptoms. “Named CPV type 2 (CPV-2) to distinguish it from the anti- genically unrelated CPV type 1, also known as minute virus of canines, CPV-2 spread rapidly worldwide” (Glover). The canine parvovirus has been scientifically thought to have arisen from a mutation of the feline panleukopenia virus. The feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) is the almost identical to the parvovirus while it only presides in cats (Bird 142). Although there is some strains of CPV currently circulating in the U.S. that can also

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,

Variola virus belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus, the members of which cause skin lesions in mammals. The infection with this virus caused several different patterns of illness, ranging from the "classic" vesiculopustular exanthem to rapidly lethal disease lacking the typical rash, indicating that these clinical variants were significantly determined by host factors.

However, in Bolivia, the bLV infection rate was at 30% within each herd. Within Argentina, the samples showed a prevalence of 77.4%, however within each herd there was a 90.9% prevalence rate. In contrast, Chile did not have a high percentage of prevalence. There was a only a maximum of 29.1% of the herd that tested positive. The experimenters conducted the experiment by using two different phylogenetic analyses: the maximum likelihood tree and the bayesian interference approach. The bayesian interference used 35 distinct partial sequences of the env GP51 sequence from the BLV strains that were isolated from Peru, Paraguay, and Bolivia; this included 74 known BLV strains which represented 8 different BLV genotypes from various locations worldwide. By incorporating the data found, the experimenters were able to create the phylogenetic tree which grouped the various species together. By grouping the data onto the tree, they were able to discover that Peru and Paraguay had the genotypes -1, -2, and -6. However when genotypes from Bolivia were analyzed, they found the genotypes -1, -2, -6, and a new genotype, -9. They were able to discover that through evolutionary genetics, the -1, -2, and -6 were able to create the newest genotype, -9. The results were confirmed by using the Model Likelihood phylogenetic analysis of whole genome sequences,

Most notably, the symptoms of fatal clinical cases involving CPV are typified by leukopenia, a reduction in the white blood cell count, and widespread cell death of the intestinal gland epithelium and lymphoid tissue caused by the location of receptors for the virus

These viruses have a 145 to 150 kb genomic DNA and glycoproteins that are important for cell attachment, entry and cell-to-cell spreading and induction of immune responses [3,4]. The common characteristics between all herpesvirus infections are latency

The class samples were quantified using the plaque assay and statistical tests were used to verify the relationship between the final yields of virus resulting from different amount of MOI in each sample tested. Two hours after the infection the T4 virus yield was of 1.1x108 plaque forming unit per ml (pfu/ml) and overnight it was of 4 x108 pfu/ml. These results are consistent with the mean class result which was 2.28 x108pfu/ml for the 2 hour sample, and 1.11 x109pfu/ml for the 24hour sample using a 1.5MOI. The mean class virus titre for every MOI tested can be seen below on table 1.

During 1980, physicians encountered a new kind of illness. This “illness” was later known to be HIV/AIDS. The unmanageable infection spread quickly and those who were infected died even with optimal therapy. Mass panic came to realize the-the disease was linked to sex, blood, and drugs. This disease was not only “strange” because of its singular clinical and epidemiologic characteristics, but also foreign that was brought by strangers. It seemed to have come from an underdeveloped part in the world. In this paper, I will research biological determinants of HIV/AIDS.

We applied massively parallel sequencing to HIV-1 provirus populations in cells from blood and lymph nodes collected at three separate times (day 0, and after 3 months and 6 months of treatment) and virus particles in the blood (day 0) from three study subjects studied previously (Fig. 1; 12). Two subjects (1727 and 1679) were well-suppressed patients; and the third subject (1774) continued to have measureable amounts of viral RNA in plasma after 3 months, but not 6 months of treatment. Subjects 1727 and 1679 were each infected with HIV-1 for approximately 3 to 4 months and were antiretroviral drug naïve. Subject 1774 was infected with HIV-1 for approximately 17 years and was antiretroviral drug

Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV is a single stranded positive sense RNA retrovirus that infects CD4+ T-Cells, Macrophages, and Dendritic Cells. (Viral Zone) Information concerning HIV’s routes of transmission, and epidemiology, as well as the course of the disease can be found below.

HIV is a virus that is spread almost all over the world. Although in some places health care isn’t as developed and therefore it spreads more in those regions. Sub-Saharan Africa holds more than 70%, 25 million, of all HIV positive people in the world. Second highest is Eastern Europe together with Central Asia with 1.3 million. It is spread over most of the world, including Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America, North Africa and the Middle East and Western and Central Europe (“The Regional Picture”).