How does AZT act against HIV?
One step in HIV replication involves “reverse transcriptase”, which is commonly called RT. RT turns RNA into DNA. This is a vital step in HIV replication. AZT binds to RT, and prevents the RNA from being turned in DNA. The basic HIV life cycle is: 1. Bind to host cell. 2. Inject RNA genome. 3. Use RT to turn the RNA genome into DNA. 4. Integrate the DNA into the host cell DNA. 5. Take over the cell machinery and start making virus pieces. 6. Assemble into virus particles, and get released from the cell. 7. Rearrange the pieces inside the virus particles to become a mature virus. 8. Repeat, starting at 1. AZT stops step 3. Of course, it isn’t 100% effective. Also, RT is very similar to some natural enzymes that keep the cell functional, so AZT attacks them, as well. It works as a drug because it destroys the ability of RT to function much more easily than the ability of the natural cell enzymes.
