AIDS - Therapy or Cancer

Dr. O. Olivero's lecture topic was on a special AIDS therapy that is very effective in controlling and slowing down AIDS, but the controversy is that scientists are not sure if it increases the chances of a patient getting cancer. The therapy is based on the idea of keeping the AIDS virus from replicating inside the cell. The AIDS virus enters a cell through the "right doors" on a cell membrane. When the virus is inside the cell it then releases its own DNA and incorporates itself into the DNA of the cell. The cell then begins to use the viruses DNA to replicate more of the AIDS virus. The therapy is able to slow this process because of its genotoxicity. Genotoxicity means a substances ability to mutate or destroy DNA.
The reason why the therapy is so toxic to genes is because it involves AZT; this substance is combined with an enzyme and becomes AZT tri-phosphate. When this substance enters a cell it attaches itself onto the telomeres of the cells chromosomes. When the cell tries to replicate the chromosomes separate from each other and this causes bridges of DNA to form between the telomeres that were once touching. Eventually the bridges of DNA break; this means DNA is lost. This is crucial because all biology scientists know that even a little change in DNA can cause a great change in the way a cell works. The scientists proved that DNA was being lost through a couple of experiments that involved dying the DNA and cell structures with different substances after having AZT injected into the cells. The photographs produced show that bridges of DNA is being lost. The scientists ran some experiments on mice by injecting them with AZT even before birth and the rates of tumors grew tremendously. The new research will cause a huge controversy on whether this type therapy should be used because this therapy is extremely effective. When a mother with HIV/AIDS is giving birth to a child there is a 25% chance that the child will get AIDS, with AZT the average is a 4% chance, and with AZT and a C-section there is a 2 % chance.