Introduction to HIV

and it’s Lifecycle

 HIV VIRUS
❑The human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) is a retrovirus
belonging to the family of
lentiviruses.
❑Retroviruses can use their
RNA and host DNA to make
viral DNA and are known for
their long incubation periods.
 Ct……..
❑HIV causes severe damage to the
immune system and eventually
destroys it by using the DNA of CD4+
cells to replicate itself.
❑Size: 1/10,000th of a millimeter in
diameter.
❑It has a protein capsule containing two
short strands of genetic material
(RNA) and enzymes.
HIV Types

HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2.

• Both have the same modes of
transmission and are associated
with the same opportunistic
infections, but
 HIV-1 & HIV-2
•HIV-1 exhibits a genetic relation to
viruses indigenous to chimpanzees
and gorillas that inhabit West Africa,
•while HIV-2 viruses are affiliated with
viruses present in the sooty
mangabey, a vulnerable West African
primate.[2]
 HIV-1 viruses
•HIV-1 is the most common and most
pathogenic strain of the virus.
•As of 2022, approximately 1.3 million such
infections occur annually.[4][5] Scientists
divide HIV-1 into a major group (group M)
and two or more minor groups, namely
groups N, O and possibly a group P.
•Each group is believed to represent an
independent transmission of simian
immunodeficiency virus (SIV) into humans,
HIV-1 viruses
•HIV-1 viruses can be further stratified
into groups M, N, O, and P.
•Among these, HIV-1 group M viruses
are the most prevalent, infecting
nearly 90% of people living with
HIV and are responsible for the
global AIDS pandemic.
 Group M
•Group M viruses can be further
subdivided into subtypes based
on genetic sequence data. Certain
subtypes are known for their
increased virulence or drug
resistance to different medications
used to treat HIV.
 Which HIV-1is most widespread
worldwide.
•HIV-1 is further classified into
four groups; M, N, O and P. Of
these, group M is the most
widespread worldwide.
 Which is the newest group of HIV-1
virus?

•P group: This is the newest group of

HIV-1. It was given its own name
because of how different it is from
the M, N, and O strains.
 Group M subtype

•Group M is divided into nine

distinct subtypes; A, B, C, D, F, G,
H, J and K.
•NB. Two or more subtypes of
HIV can combine to form a hybrid.
Which is the most common among
Group M nine distinct subtypes?
•Subtype C currently accounts
for more than half of all new HIV
infections worldwide.
•Various subtypes of HIV-1 have
been found in specific geographic
areas and in specific high-risk
groups.
 SUBTYPES OF HIV-1
•Subtype A: common in Central Africa,
sub-Saharan Africa & West Africa
•Subtype B: is the dominant form in
Europe, the Americas, Japan, and
Australia.In addition, subtype B is the
most common form in the Middle East
and North Africa.[ South America, Brazil,
United States, Thailand, Europe, Caribbean,
India, Japan
 Ct…..
•Subtype C: is the dominant form in
Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Brazil
India, Nepal, and parts of China.
•Subtype D: is generally only seen in
Eastern and central Africa, (Subsahara
África= East África, Southern África, West
África, Central África)
 Ct….
•Subtype E: Thailand, Central African
Republic, Southeast Asia NB: Subtype E
was originally used to describe a
strain that is now accounted for as
the combined strain AE.This means
the original, singular, E strain has
disappeared, but we know it existed,
as it is visible in this combined strain
form.[citation needed]
 Ct….SUBTYPES OF HIV-1
•Subtype F: Brazil, Romania,
Democratic Republic of Congo,
central Africa, South America and
Eastern Europe.[12]
•Subtype G: Democratic Republic of
Congo, Gabon, Thailand, Russia, Central
Africa and central Europe.[12]
 Ct……
•Subtype H: is limited to central
Africa, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Gabon, Russia
•Subtype I: is found in Cyprus:
Subtype I was originally used to
describe a strain that is now
accounted for as CRF04_cpx, with
the cpx for a "complex"
recombination of several
subtypes.[11]
 Ct…….
•Subtype J: is primarily found in North,
Central and West Africa, and the
Caribbean[13]
•Subtype K: is limited to the DRC and
Cameroon.[12]
•Subtype L: is limited to the DRC.[14]
 HIV-2 viruses
•HIV-2 viruses are generally considered to
be less virulent and
less transmissible than HIV-1 M group
viruses, although HIV-2 is also known to
still cause AIDS.
•One of the prevailing challenges in the
pursuit of effective management of HIV is
the virus's pronounced genetic
variability and rapid viral evolution.[3]
 HIV-2 viruses
•HIV-2 is mostly only found in Africa,
and therefore less recognized
outside of Africa.
•The first identification of HIV-2
occurred in 1985 in Senegal by
microbiologist Souleymane
Mboup and his collaborators.[27]
 Ct……………..
•The first case in the United States was
in 1987.[28] The first confirmed case of
HIV-2 was a Portuguese man who was
treated at the London Hospital for
Tropical Diseases and later died in
1987.
•He was believed to have been exposed
to the disease in Guinea-Bissau where
he lived between 1956 and 1966.
 Ct………..
•HIV-2 is closely related to SIV endemic
in sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys)
(SIVsmm), a monkey species inhabiting the
forests of Littoral West Africa.
•Phylogenetic analyses show that the virus
most closely related to the two strains of HIV-2
which spread considerably in humans (HIV-2
groups A and B) is the SIVsmm found in the
sooty mangabeys of the Tai forest, in
western Ivory Coast.[31]
 Ct……………
•As of 2010, there are eight known HIV-2
groups (A to H), Of these, only groups A
and B are pandemic.
•Group A is found mainly in West Africa, but
has also spread globally to Angola,
Mozambique, Brazil, India, Europe, and the
US.
•Despite the presence of HIV-2 globally,
Group B is mainly confined to West
Africa.[31][32]
HIV-2
•HIV-2 appears to progress more
slowly.
•Most HIV-2 cases are found in
western Africa and in countries
related to western Africa in some
way such as Portugal, France, Angola,
Mozambique, Brazil, and India.
HIV STRUCTURE OF HIV VIRUS
•HIV is an enveloped RNA virus: As
HIV buds out of the host cell during
replication, it acquires a
phospholipid envelope.
•Protruding from the envelope are
peg-like structures that the viral
RNA encodes.
•Each peg consists of three or four
gp41 glycoproteins (the stem),
capped with three or four gp120
glycoproteins.
 Ct……..
• Inside the envelope the bullet-
shaped nucleocapsid of the virus is
composed of protein and surrounds
two single strands of RNA.
•Three enzymes important to the
virus’s life cycle — reverse
transcriptase, integrase, and
protease — are also
•within the nucleocapsid
CT..
•Although helper T cells seem to be
the main target for HIV, other cells
can become infected as well.
•These include monocytes and
macrophages, which can hold large
numbers of viruses within themselves
without being killed. Some T cells
harbor similar reservoirs of the virus.
 CT….
•Entry of HIV into the host cell requires
the binding of one or more gp120
molecules on the virus to CD4
molecules on the host cell’s surface.
•Binding to a second receptor is also
required.
HIV’S LIFE CYCLE
1 & 2. Binding And Fusion
•The envelope proteins gp120 and gp41
bind to CD4+ cell receptors and
coreceptors on the outside of CD4+
cells and macrophages.

•The chemokine receptors CCR5 and

CXCR4 facilitate viral entry.

•T-cell tropic viruses require CXCR4 to

 Binding And Fusion Ct,
•The joining of the proteins and the receptors and
coreceptors fuses the HIV membrane with the
CD4+ cell membrane, and the virus enters the
CD4+ cell and macrophage.
•The HIV membrane and the envelope proteins
remain outside of the CD4+ cell, whereas the core
of the virus enters the CD4+ cell.
•CD4+ cell enzymes interact with the viral core and
stimulate the release of viral RNA and the viral
enzymes reverse transcriptase, integrase, and
protease.
Binding and FUSION ct,
3. Reverse Transcription

• The HIV RNA must be converted to DNA before it can be

incorporated into the DNA of the CD4+ cell.
• This incorporation must occur for the virus to multiply.
• HIV RNA is converted to single strand of HIV DNA by the help
of HIV enzyme reverse transcriptase.
• The single strand of this new DNA then undergoes replication
into double-stranded HIV DNA.
 4. Integration
Once reverse transcription has occurred:
• The viral DNA enters the nucleus of the CD4+ cell and finally
its inserted into the CD4+ cell’s DNA ( a process called
integration) by the viral enzyme integrase
• At this level ,the CD4+ cell has now been changed into a
factory used to produce more HIV.
Hiv Life Cycle Ct,
5. Replication
•Once integrated into the CD4 DNA, the HIV
begin to use the machinery of the CD4 cell
make long chains of HIV proteins which are the
building blocks for more HIV.
•Provirus (HIV DNA) is replicated along with the
chromosome when the cell divides.
•The integration of provirus into the host DNA
provides the latency that enables the virus to
evade host responses so effectively.
 Hiv Life Cycle Ct,
6. Assembly
➢ The HIV proteins and viral RNA, all the
components needed to make a new virus, gather
/assemble at the CD4+ cell membrane to form
new viruses.
➢ Production of viral proteins and RNA takes place
when the provirus is transcribed.Viral proteins
are then assembled using the host cell’s protein-
making machinery.
➢ The virus’s protease enzyme allows for the
processing of newly translated polypeptides into
the proteins, which are then ultimately assembled
into viral particles.
Hiv Life Cycle Ct,
•These new viruses leave the CD4+ cell
and contain all the components necessary
to infect other CD4+ cells but cannot do
so until it has matured.

•During this process, the HIV protease

enzyme cuts the long HIV proteins of the
virus into smaller functional units that then
reassemble to form a mature virus.
 7. Budding and Maturation

These new immature viruses push through the

different parts of the cell wall by budding.

Many viruses can push through the wall of one CD4+

cell. The virus eventually buds out of the cell.

A cell infected with a retrovirus does not necessarily

lyse the cell when viral replication takes place; rather,
many viral particles can bud out of a cell over the
course of time.