

Testing for AIDS - 2
•eAcquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
•eHuman Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1)
•Characteristics
of HIV-1:
•eit contains two strands of RNA
•ealso contains several enzymes
•eit=s capsid contains lipids
•egp120 antigen of virus attaches to CD4 antigen on
cells
•ethree major genes and their functions:
•Codes for glycoproteins in outer envelope (gp120 & gp41)
•Codes for core proteins (p55, p40 & p24)
•Codes for enzymes reverse transcriptase (p66) & (p51),
protease (p11), & integrase (p51)