AIDS

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lead Heckler, the secretary of health and human services, to say
that a cure was just a few years away. Today, no cure is available and no sure
treatment for AIDS symptoms is at hand. People are still contracting and dying
from AIDS at an alarming rate. AIDS is a fatal disease that does not kill the
patient. Its principle source of infection is the HIV virus which is a
retrovirus. This means that the protein coat contains RNA instead of DNA and
when the virus injects its genetic material into the host cell, it must first
cause the cell to transcribe, using a unique enzyme called reverse transcriptase,
it into complementary- DNA (c-DNA) before replication can occur. The virus is
spherical in shape and is made of two parts: an envelop and core. The envelop
is similar to a typical cell membrane (bilipid layer) imbedded with three
proteins. The core section is bullet-shaped surrounded by a protein. Inside is
the genetic material, RNA, covered by another protein (Combating ...

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something occurs that damages the immune system, then these diseases abound
(Folks).
One of the symptoms of full blown AIDS is dementia. This was thought to
be caused by encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). New evidence suggests
that the AIDS virus itself destroys neurons in the brain even though it does
not infect them. In laboratory findings the level of neurons in the brains of
dead AIDS patients was forty percent less than in non AIDS brains. The brains
of dead AIDS patients showed signs of HIV but the majority did not show signs of
encephalitis. It is proposed that the protein coat on HIV may interfere with
VIP (a brain protein) which some neurons need in order to ...

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