How do virus become drug resistant?
When someone, with HIV for instance, does not take the drug regimen as prescribed, exactly how can the virus become drug resistant?
Answers:
The answer is natural screening. Viruses are basically encapsulated pieces of DNA. Their genetic code changes randomly over time. If in attendance are, say, 1 million virions (virus particles) in your body, one of them will eventually randomly develop resistance to a drug, via genetic mutation, for example. For instance, a virus protein targeted by the drug might tweaking its structure, rendering the drug unable to bind to it. Since HIV drug regimens involve multiple drugs at once, this wouldn't always be a catastrophe -- the other drugs will still eliminate the virion. But, if somebody is non-adherent to their drug regimen -- if they're only taking one drug -- it can give the resistant virion an opportunity to multiply into a whole population of drug-resistant virus particle.
This concept applies to bacterial infections as well.
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Answers:
The answer is natural screening. Viruses are basically encapsulated pieces of DNA. Their genetic code changes randomly over time. If in attendance are, say, 1 million virions (virus particles) in your body, one of them will eventually randomly develop resistance to a drug, via genetic mutation, for example. For instance, a virus protein targeted by the drug might tweaking its structure, rendering the drug unable to bind to it. Since HIV drug regimens involve multiple drugs at once, this wouldn't always be a catastrophe -- the other drugs will still eliminate the virion. But, if somebody is non-adherent to their drug regimen -- if they're only taking one drug -- it can give the resistant virion an opportunity to multiply into a whole population of drug-resistant virus particle.
This concept applies to bacterial infections as well.
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