What is makes retroviruses different from other RNA viruses like influenza?
The fact that the retrovirus has an RNA puts it into a whole group of families of viruses that have RNA. Measles, mumps, influenza. [However], what is different about those viruses? Those viruses, when they enter a cell, have to kill the cell. Otherwise, that’s it. They can’t incorporate into the chromosome. So they are easier to control. Because, let’s say they kill a few cells. Then the immune system comes in, recognizes them and gets rid of them. HIV, the AIDS virus, goes in, the immune system recognizes it and may kill a little bit, but they’ve incorporated their genetic material in some cells and the immune system may not find it. Then they can pass that silently throughout the body, and you’ve got an established infection. How does our own immune system help the virus stay there-help it to replicate? If you’re looking at whether the immune system helps the AIDS virus or helps any of the viruses, the best way it does it is by trying to fight it and secreting these proteins that ac
