Question

Imagine you are administering an HIV patient's drug cocktail treatment for the day. The patient has become curious about how the drugs he's taking actually help him. He points to one of the drugs and says he read on the Internet that it is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor but doesn't know what that means. A. Explain reverse transcriptase to him. B. Then explain what the reverse transcriptase inhibitor does. C. Explain what overall effect this will have on the virus and patient.

Answer 1

Answer:

See below

Explanation:

A) First of all, it must be considered that HIV has a RNA genome.

The reverse transcriptase is a viral enzyme able to convert a RNA molecule (in this case the RNA would be the viral genome) to DNA. This process is important for two reasons:

* The DNA molecule is more stable than RNA --> Therefore, there is a higher likely that the molecule wouldn't be degradated by the host.

* The viral genome made of DNA will be integrated into the host genome --> To do so, it requires to be DNA instead of RNA

B) The inibitor is able to target the Reverse Transcriptase --> So, the likehood of converting RNA to DNA is lower. In this case, the single RNA molecule is less stable than the DNA and the host can degradate it more easily.

C) In general, the viral will not survive the treatment and, hence, the patient will not suffer from the viral infection