HIV and it's Reproductive Cycle

Question

Hello,

I am wondering about HIV and it's reproductive cycle. Is it Lysogenic that subsequently goes through and Lytic cycle? I am wondering if it goes through induction.

Answer 1

HIV is indeed a lysogenic virus until your immune system is weakened. Depending on the type of infection, viral vs. bacterial, your T-cells, in particular your Th cells, become active and replicate in response to an antigen/infection. This can cause HIV virues, which is integrated into your host cell DNA, to go lytic thus killing your Th cells. In turn this drastically reduces the number of Th cells in our bodies and we become susceptible to secondary infections. HIV is a very clever virus. Hope this helps.