Viruses: From Understanding to Investigation (Second Edition) - Chapter 43: Replication and pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was identified in the early 1980s. It belongs to a group of retroviruses called lentiviruses (genus Lentivirus). Lentiviruses cause life-long chronic infections of a variety of animals. They are very host-specific, often infect cells of the immune system, and have the ability to productively infect nondividing cells. HIVs are very closely related to the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) that infect a number of species of nonhuman primate. The two types of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2, are most closely related to SIV chimpanzee and SIV sooty mangabey, respectively. HIV-1 is the most widely distributed human lentivirus. In 2020 the World Health Organization estimated over 37 million HIV-1 infections worldwide. This chapter discusses HIV cell and host tropism, functions of structural, regulatory, and auxiliary proteins and provides a general overview of pathogenesis, vaccine development, and treatments.