AIDS

Lifecycle
Images and concept by
The Museum of Science and
Industry, Chicago
and The Chedd-Angier Production
Company, Watertown, MA.

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 1

HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS, is passed from one
person to another through sex,
sharing needles, or using
contaminated blood products.
A mother can also pass HIV to
her new baby. The virus
travels through the
bloodstream to many different
places in the body.

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 2

The immune system,
which helps the body fight
off illness, fights back in
three ways: with...
...custom-made
antibodies...

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 2

... macrophages which eat up all foreign invaders, and ...

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 2

killer T-cells which seek out and destroy cells that

are already infected with the virus.

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 3

This defense is coordinated
by these -- the helper T
cells. But HIV has an
ingenious battle strategy: it
attacks the T cells
themselves, crippling the
body's defenses.
Infected helper T-cells (foreground)

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 4

Here's how it works: HIV
has a special shape on its
surface which, like a
piece of a jigsaw puzzle,
fits perfectly into a shape
on the T cell. This shape
is a protein called CD4.
The virus can now enter
and infect the cell.
AIDS virus attaching to a CD4 receptor
on a helper T-cell

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 5

The virus's genetic information
-- called RNA -- is transcribed
into a form that is identical to
the cell's genetic information -called DNA. The virus, now in
the form of DNA, hides out
inside the nucleus of the cell,
escaping from the body's
defenses.
HIV RNA being transcribed to DNA

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 6

After a while, HIV comes out of hiding and begins to reproduce.

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 6

The DNA is transcribed into many copies of RNA,
which produce proteins for the new viruses.

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 7

The proteins are cut into usable pieces and packaged with the RNA.

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 8

The new viruses then
bud from the cell. Each
new virus may then go
on to infect and destroy
other T cells, weakening
the immune systems
defense.
Infected T-cell budding new viruses

AIDS Lifecycle Stage 9

After a lot of T cells are
destroyed, the person is said to
have AIDS. A person with AIDS
will probably develop one or
many opportunistic infections -diseases that make people sick
only when their immune
systems are weakened. A person
with AIDS will usually die of
these opportunistic infections.

Opportunistic infections in the

bloodstream of a person with AIDS

Stopping HIV: Strategy 1

This is a promising place to try to
stop AIDS, by helping the
immune system early on in its
fight against HIV. One possibility
is an AIDS vaccine. Here's how it
would work:An uninfected
person is exposed to a form of
the virus which does not cause
illness, but which does stimulate
the body's defenses.
The immune system is tricked into producing millions of killer
T cells and antibodies custom-made to fight the virus.
Some of these defenses stay in the body.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 1

Later, if the person is infected with HIV, the immune system has
a head start in its battle.
But there are problems with this approach.
Scientists have to make sure the vaccine itself doesn't make people ill.
HIV is constantly changing, so the defenses stimulated by a vaccine
might not be effective in fighting the actual virus.
And if even a single virus escapes by hiding out inside a cell, it could go
on to make thousands of copies of itself.

So although this is a promising place in the life cycle to stop

AIDS, there is still a lot of work to do before we have an
effective vaccine.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 2

To stop the virus here, we
would have to keep it from
ever attaching to a T cell. Let's
see how this would work.
This shape on the T cell is a
protein called CD4. If a lot of
artificial, decoy CD4 is given
to an infected person, then
HIV could attach to the decoys
instead of to the T cells.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 2

The problems here are that the decoy CD4 does not
remain in the body very long, and it does not attach
well to HIV circulating in the bloodstream. But
improved decoy CD4 might eventually be used for
an intense, short-term battle against a new infection.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 3

This is an excellent place to try to stop AIDS, and in
fact there are many drugs now in use that work at this
step in the life cycle. Drugs that work at this step look
like the building blocks used to make DNA. But
they're faulty building blocks, so once they're used,
the building process comes to a halt.
And if the virus cannot turn its RNA into DNA, it
cannot hide out in the cell, and it cannot reproduce. It
sounds great, but there are problems with these drugs.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 3

HIV is constantly changing, and
eventually it is no longer tricked
by these faulty building blocks.
HIV becomes resistant to these
drugs, and the life cycle
continues the same as before.
Another problem is that these
drugs can damage non-infected
cells which also need to make
DNA to reproduce.
This is a good place to break the
life cycle, but it's not a cure.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 4

There are some possibilities that
may stop AIDS at this step in the
life cycle. Scientists are trying to
make drugs to stop the
production of the virus's proteins.
Without these proteins, the virus
cannot survive.
They're also working on a drug
that would prevent the proteins
being cut into usable pieces.
Proteins in long uncut strands are
useless, and the life cycle would
be broken.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 4

This is a promising place to break the life cycle,
but these drugs are not a cure: they would only
slow down the replication of the virus.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 5

This is a very late stage in the
life cycle of HIV. But it might
eventually be a last resort for
stopping AIDS.
Scientists are working on ways
to boost an AIDS patient's
immune system at this step, so
that when new viruses bud from
infected cells, the body's
defenses are strengthened and
ready to fight back. There also
are many drugs now available to
treat opportunistic infections,
which are often the cause of
death in people with AIDS.

Stopping HIV: Strategy 5

This research is promising. But this late stage
of HIV's life cycle is a very difficult place to
stop AIDS.