Question

HIV is able to change its RNA into DNA to allow for replication by CD8+ cells. True or False.

Answer 1

False, like all viruses, HIV can replicate only inside cells, commandeering the cell's machinery to reproduce. However, only HIV and other retroviruses, once inside a cell, use an enzyme called reverse transcriptase to convert their RNA into DNA, which can be incorporated into the host cell's genes.While HIV-specific CD8+ T-cells control the virus during acute HIV/SIV infection, their cytotoxic potential dramatically decreases along with disease progression and are no longer capable of exerting an appropriate antiviral response

HIV is a retrovirus, which means it carries single-stranded RNA is its genetic material rather than the double-stranded DNA human cells carry. Retroviruses also have the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which allow it to copy RNA into DNA and use that DNA "copy" to infect human, or host, cells.