Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Illustration of HIV. The human immunodeficiency virus is the virus that causes AIDS. It is a retrovirus, which means that it has a reverse transcriptase. The virus carries its genetic information as RNA. It has an envelope that contains various proteins, which are visible on the surface and are called gp41 and gp120. With these glykoproteins, the virus attaches itself to the receptors and coreceptors (CR4, R5, CXCR4, CCR5) of the host cell.
