HIV

The Dead Zone a New York Times series of AIDS in Africa

nyt link

A graphic of HIV source unknown

HIV escaping a helper T cell from Scientific American

new sciam check it out

sciam explorations Clinton declares war on virus

retrovirus infection and retrovirus graphic

intro to HIV and AIDS

cells alive HIV shows stages of infection of a cell and points of drug sensitivity

discover mag story

what the heck is a protease inhibitor

The reverse transcriptase enzyme is very nonselective and recognizes AZT as an Adenosine This drug gets incorporated into the growing DNA chain and as was the case with acylovir elongation comes to a halt and the virus cannot replicate.

3-TC or epivir works in a similar fasion replacing cytidine in the growing DNA chain. There is a synergistic effect with AZT, as the virus is generally unable to mutate in ways that alow it to resist both drugs.

Ritonavir (right) is one of the protease inhibitors. By binding to and blocking the HIV protease this drug prevents the virus from processing the proteins it makes. By keeping the amount of virus low it prevents HIV from developing resistance to the entire cocktail.

Protease and Inhibitor

3D display of anti-AIDS drugs

San Jose Mercury News graphic of infection with cofactors

ucsf site

mediconsult aids page

Paul Reisberg preisberg@wellesley.edu
Chemistry Department
Date Created: August 14, 1997
Last Modified: October 28, 1998
Expires: August 30, 1999


A graphic of HIV source unknown	HIV escaping a helper T cell from Scientific American

	The reverse transcriptase enzyme is very nonselective and recognizes AZT as an Adenosine This drug gets incorporated into the growing DNA chain and as was the case with acylovir elongation comes to a halt and the virus cannot replicate.
	3-TC or epivir works in a similar fasion replacing cytidine in the growing DNA chain. There is a synergistic effect with AZT, as the virus is generally unable to mutate in ways that alow it to resist both drugs.
	Ritonavir (right) is one of the protease inhibitors. By binding to and blocking the HIV protease this drug prevents the virus from processing the proteins it makes. By keeping the amount of virus low it prevents HIV from developing resistance to the entire cocktail.