How AIDS work?

Question

What does AIDS attack actually?

Answer 1

That's a pretty serious question...I think that should be something you should talk to your Doc about.

Answer 2

What happens is that when the virus is introduced into the body, it goes directly to the DNA of the cell. It "hypnotizes" the DNA, it tells the DNA in way of specific markers, you will no longer produce that ( human cell) but you will produce me( HIV) The markers from the DNA are missing and the HIV takes over the body. When this happens it suppresses everything. Mostly the bodies defense system. The bodies " Marines", the WBC. The immune system then gets severly compromised and that is how most people find out that they have the virus. They get a opprotunistic processes like, pneumonia ( carinii pneumonia) and certain bacterium only seen in immunocompromised people. Tips the doc off that further testing for the HIV virus is needed.
Many test are ran, but, a CD4 test will be ran. CD4 are helper cells of the Tcell. When CD4 is below 200 it is then considered to be AIDS.
AIDS is the latent prosses related to the HIV virus.
We know that the only way HIV/AIDS is contracted is by the mixing of bodily fluids. So, safe sex it the way to go. Blood transfusions are check, rechecked on and on....
But safe sex is the truley best defense to not contract this virus.
Each time this virus is introduced into another human body, it mutates. Which makes it very difficult for the scientist and physicians to find a cure.
This virus can be avoided... so be cautious with your health.

Answer 3

AIDS is deadly in that it attacks the immune system and makes you incapable of fighting off disease, thus most people end up dying from common colds etc. . . Currently, the problem with medicines used on AIDS is that AIDS keep on changing its outer viral shell, which acts as a guide which most medicines use for for targeting. Thus, the best way of fighting AIDS is by attacking the unique reproduction system of viruses, but there are still limits, and people still eventually find their immune system fail and pass away.

Answer 4

My aunt died of aids in 1994. It destroys the immune system, in final stages the brain goes too. If you have aids and get a cold, you can die, literally. Most people's immune system can fight colds, but a person with aids cannot fight the cold. A flu is deadly to someone with aids. GL.

Answer 5

AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, attacks your cellular immune system, greatly increasing your risk of infection. AIDS is caused by the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) which is transferred through blood and contact of sexual fluids. HIV's incubation time varies according to the person and circumstances, however it is always fatal.

Answer 6

ok first off u nurses need to learn how to explain stuff to normal people...... im in school for PA (physicians Assistant) then to go for MD........

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The late stage of the condition leaves individuals prone to opportunistic infections and tumors. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV exist to slow the virus's progression, there is no known cure. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk. This transmission can come in the form of anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.
AIDS is the most severe manifestation of infection with HIV. HIV is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells (a subset of T cells), macrophages and dendritic cells. It directly and indirectly destroys CD4+ T cells. CD4+ T cells are required for the proper functioning of the immune system. When HIV kills CD4+ T cells so that there are fewer than 200 CD4+ T cells per microliter (µL) of blood, cellular immunity is lost, leading to the condition known as AIDS. Acute HIV infection progresses over time to clinical latent HIV infection and then to early symptomatic HIV infection and later to AIDS, which is identified on the basis of the amount of CD4+ T cells in the blood and the presence of certain infections.

In the absence of antiretroviral therapy, the median time of progression from HIV infection to AIDS is nine to ten years, and the median survival time after developing AIDS is only 9.2 months. However, the rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals, from two weeks up to 20 years. Many factors affect the rate of progression. These include factors that influence the body's ability to defend against HIV such as the infected person's general immune function. Older people have weaker immune systems, and therefore have a greater risk of rapid disease progression than younger people. Poor access to health care and the existence of coexisting infections such as tuberculosis also may predispose people to faster disease progression. The infected person's genetic inheritance plays an important role and some people are resistant to certain strains of HIV. An example of this is people with the CCR5-Δ32 mutation are resistant to infection with certain strains of HIV. HIV is genetically variable and exists as different strains, which cause different rates of clinical disease progression. The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy prolongs both the median time of progression to AIDS and the median survival time.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) originally classified AIDS as GRID which stood for Gay Related Immune Disease. However, after determining that AIDS is not isolated to homosexual people the name was changed to the neutral AIDS. In 1993, the CDC expanded their definition of AIDS to include all HIV positive people with a CD4+ T cell count below 200 per µL of blood or 14% of all lymphocytes. The majority of new AIDS cases in developed countries use either this definition or the pre-1993 CDC definition. The AIDS diagnosis still stands even if, after treatment, the CD4+ T cell count rises to above 200 per µL of blood or other AIDS-defining illnesses are cured.

Answer 7

the virus that causes aids, attacks ur immune system, so you don't really die of aids but other viruses like colds, becaus your immune system can't fight those viruses iny our body.

Answer 8

Binding and Entry

The genetic material of HIV, an RNA molecule 9 kilobases in length, contains 9 different genes encoding 15 proteins. Considerable insights have been gained into the function of these different gene products. To productively infect a target cell, HIV must introduce its genetic material into the cytoplasm of this cell. The process of viral entry involves fusion of the viral envelope with the host cell membrane and requires the specific interaction of the envelope with specific cell surface receptors. The two viral envelope proteins, gp120 and gp41, are conformationally associated to form a trimeric functional unit consisting of three molecules of gp120 exposed on the virion surface and associated with three molecules of gp41 inserted into the viral lipid membrane. Trimeric gp120 on the surface of the virion binds CD4 on the surface of the target cell, inducing a conformational change in the envelope proteins that in turn allows binding of the virion to a specific subset of chemokine receptors on the cell surface.(1). These receptors normally play a role in chemoattraction, in which hematopoietic cells move along chemokine gradients to specific sites. Although these receptors, which contain seven membrane-spanning domains, normally transduce signals through G proteins,(2) signaling is not required for HIV infection.

Twelve chemokine receptors can function as HIV coreceptors in cultured cells, but only two are known to play a role in vivo.(2) One of these, CCR5, binds macrophage-tropic, non-syncytium-inducing (R5) viruses, which are associated with mucosal and intravenous transmission of HIV infection. The other, CXCR4, binds T-cell-tropic, syncytium-inducing (X4) viruses, which are frequently found during the later stages of disease.(3) In up to 13% of individuals of northern European descent, a naturally occurring deletion of 32 base pairs in the CCR5 gene results in a mutant CCR5 receptor that never reaches the cell surface.(4,5) Individuals homozygous for this mutation (1-2% of the Caucasian population) are almost completely resistant to HIV infection.(4,5) These observations emphasize the pivotal role of CCR5 in the spread of HIV and suggest that small molecules that prevent HIV interaction with CCR5 might form a promising new class of antiretroviral drugs.

Both CD4 and chemokine coreceptors for HIV are found disproportionately in lipid rafts in the cell membrane.(6) These cholesterol- and sphingolipid-enriched microdomains likely provide a better environment for membrane fusion, perhaps by mirroring the optimal lipid bilayer of the virus.(7) Removing cholesterol from virions, producer cells, or target cells greatly decreases the infectivity of HIV.(8) Studies currently under way are exploring whether cholesterol-depleting compounds might be efficacious as topically applied microbicides to inhibit HIV transmission at mucosal surfaces. The development of effective microbicides represents an important component of future HIV prevention strategies.

Answer 9

the virus attacks the body's immune system especially the t-cells.it make our body immune deficient and prone to dangerous diseases like tuberculosis,herpes zoster,oropharyngeal candidiasis(fungal infection of mouth and throat),an unusual cancer namely kaposis sarcoma which produces scattered purple lesions over the chest and abdomen and the like.