The Science of HIV/AIDS

HIV AIDS has taken the lives of over 39 million people worldwide despite our efforts to prevent treat and better understand it but with 35 million people currently infected what exactly is it and are we close to a cure to contract HIV the virus must enter the bloodstream and it's often transmitted from infected bodily fluids like blood semen vaginal fluids or breast milk once inside the bloodstream HIV targets a variety of cells but most specifically the te- helper cells which are type of white blood cell that play an essential role in our immune system and fighting infections the outer envelope of HIV is covered in glycoproteins which mutate frequently ultimately tricking the te- cell receptors to not recognize the virus once attached to specific proteins on the te- cell it begins to fuse the membranes together and eventually enters the cell where it releases two viral RNA strands and three essential replication enzymes because HIV is a retrovirus the RNA is transcribed into DNA represented here by a zipper of to RNA strand transcribing into DNA this DNA is then integrated into the host cell's genome this makes the te- cells treat the viral genes like their own which causes them to make more copies of the virus these then leave the host cell immature ultimately seeking more tea cells the virus is particularly difficult to treat because its mutation rate is so high overall the replication process creates more than 10 billion new Vons each day during these initial stages of replication called the latency period a a person may not show any major symptoms for up to 8 years if not treated the HIV eventually kills off the specific te- cells that infects when these tea cells fall below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood it becomes acquired immune deficiency syndrome or Aids after progressing this far the immune system becomes suppressed and is much more susceptible to Cancers and opportunistic infections such as pneumonia a person doesn't die from AIDS they actually die from an illness that the body could not fend off nowadays there is medicine that helps fight these opportunistic infections like Dera Prim which was recently in the news when Martin scy of touring pharmaceutical decided to raise the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill there are also anti-retroviral drugs that slow the virus down by blocking certain enzymes which are required for the virus to multiply similarly those without HIV but at high risk of Contracting the virus may take pre-exposure prophylaxis or prep this works similar to retroviral drugs by blocking the enzyme reverse transcript days thankfully there is hope for a cure a small population of people are immune to the HIV virus because of a mutation linked to the tea cells in one case an HIV positive subject received a bone marrow transplant meaning they were given new stem cells that generate different te- cells and within 20 months there was no evidence of the virus in their bloodstream though this is very individualized medicine it certainly opens up the possibilities of generating HIV resistant cells combine this with other therapies and preventative measures like condoms clean needle programs and safe blood transfusions and HIV AIDS May one day be a thing of the past your sharing of this video is much appreciated in the effort to help spread knowledge and awareness and a special thanks to Audible for supporting this episode to give you a free 30-day trial at audible.com/asap this week we wanted to recommend the book redefining reality which explores what is real and what is elusory from both a scientific and philosophical perspective through a series of really awesome lectures you can get a free 30-day trial at audible.com/asap and choose from a massive selection we love them as they're great when you're on the go and subscribe for more weekly science videos

Channel: AsapSCIENCE

Views: 2,226,956

Keywords: Science, AsapSCIENCE, HIV, AIDS, World AIDS Day, Disease, human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Whiteboard, Stop motion, Cartoon, Animation, Cure, Medicine, Treatment, Cure for HIV, Aids Symptoms, HIV Signs, HIV Testing, Early HIV, Virus, Sick, HIV symptoms, hiv aids, HIV cute, AIDS cure, contagious, hiv symptoms in men, hiv symptoms in women, transmission, infected, blood, white blood cell, DNA, RNA, Retrovirus, Genome, Viral, Immune System, Daraprim, Immune

Id: FDVNdn0CvKI

Length: 3min 43sec (223 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 26 2015