Medical and Health Congress

Posts Tagged ‘immune system viruses’

For the viruses to reproduce, they must infect a cell. Technically speaking, viruses are not alive: they are like a kind of disembodied brain.

To form new viruses, must hijack a cell and use it to produce them. Just as your body constantly produces new skin cells or blood, usually every cell produces new proteins to stay alive and reproduce.

Viruses hide their own DNA into the DNA of the cell and then, when the cell tries to produce new proteins, it also creates new virus accidentally. HIV mostly infects cells of the immune system.

Infection: There are different kinds of cells have on their surface receptor proteins known as CD4. HIV searches for cells that have CD4 surface receptors, because this particular protein enables the virus to bind to the cell.

Although HIV infects a large variety of cells, their primary purpose is the T4 lymphocyte (also known as helper T cell “), a type of white blood cell that has lots of CD4 receptors. The T4 cell is responsible for notifying your immune system invaders that have entered the system.

Replication: Once HIV binds to a cell, its DNA hidden within the DNA of the cell. Thus, the cell becomes a sort of HIV factory.