This page includes reviews of pages relating to the replication of the Human Immunodeficiency virus. The following criteria were considered:
Load Time{FAST, MODERATE, SLOW}
Level{DETAILED, INTERMEDIATE, OVERVIEW}
Graphics{EXCESSIVE, HIGH, APPROPRIATE, LOW}
Misc Features{...anything}
Overall Rating{1...10}
Comments: {my own comments}
Only pages considered "worthy" by the author have been included. Pages that have excessively slow links, obviously incorrect information, or broken links were disqualified. This information may prove useful to biochemistry students looking for information on the replication cycle of HIV.
While these pages do not contain information themselves,
they contain useful links and search engines that relate to HIV or virology.
(Note: I have chosen to display the actual addresses so that this page
can be useful in printed out form)
These sites contain real information and links as appropriate--they
are NOT links to sites which are links to further sites. They are
ranked in the order of their ratings (which were decided based on the given
criteria, but are nevertheless subjective).
| Site: | Find out More About Retroviruses
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/335/Retroviruses.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | INTERMEDIATE |
| Graphics: | HIGH/APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | Good overview of retrovirus structure/genetics. Good graphics. |
| Overall Rating: | 9 |
| Comments: | One of the better pages. Although it does not concentrate on HIV specifically, this page covers the essentials (in reasonable detail) of retrovirus structure, genes, and replication cycle. It would serve as an excellent primer for students who want to become familiar with the "basics" before going on to more specific pages. Also contains judiciously used yet straightforward graphics. |
| Site: | http://lutton.kenyon.edu/internet/frames/..\frames\outline1.htm |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | ADVANCED/OVERVIEW |
| Graphics: | HIGH/APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | outline based, good organization. Useful diagrams |
| Overall Rating: | 8 |
| Comments: | One of the better pages. Organized as a simple outline of Structure,
Replication Cycle, Inhibition, and Reverse Transcriptase. While not
complete, what's there is fast loading, easy to understand, and useful
(as far as I can judge). There are
certain molecular diagrams that might require a plugin (application/x-spt, Chemscape). Also covers some drug info. Downside: Not Very Complete |
| Site: | HIV Infection Overview
http://www.cellsalive.com/hiv0.htm |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | SIMPLE |
| Graphics: | HIGH/APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | helpful animations |
| Overall Rating: | 8 |
| Comments: | Site provides good overview. Animations may be helpful in visualizing certain events, but they do not really address the complexity of what goes on during reverse transcription. This page would be a good exposition to someone with minimal biology background. |
| Site: | Replication cycle of HIV-1
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/akb/1997/03lifcyc/index.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | DETAILED |
| Graphics: | APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | useful navigation bars |
| Overall Rating: | 7 |
| Comments: | Organized like a book chapter. All figures are external
links, so this improves load time. Includes extensive references.
Somewhat confusing if not already familiar with subject. Part of the AIDS Knowledge Base |
| Site: | Structure, Expression, and Regulation of the HIV-1 Genome
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/akb/1997/03genome/index.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | DETAILED |
| Graphics: | LOW/APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | detailed info on specific proteins, navigation bars
|
| Overall Rating: | 6.5 |
| Comments: | Once again, organized like a book chapter. Externally linked
graphics. Really good (but detailed) description of major structural
proteins Gag, Pol, Env, regulatory proteins rev, tat, and accessory proteins
Vpu, Vpr, Vif, and Nef. This would
be very useful to a student cramming for an AIDS-related exam. Note: some reference links are broken. Figure links work
|
| Site: | Replication Cycle of HIV
http://www.hivpositive.com/f-HIVyou/CellReplication/Rep.htm |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | OVERVIEW/SIMPLE |
| Graphics: | APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | very simple-minded |
| Overall Rating: | 6 |
| Comments: | Just a general overview of replication without going into details. Good for exposition, the graphic may also prove useful. |
| Site: | HIV Protease
http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/Project/Teaching/hiv/hiv.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | ADVANCED |
| Graphics: | HIGH/APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | 3-D molecular structures of protease with appropriate plugin from Chemscape |
| Overall Rating: | 6 |
| Comments: | This page discusses the role of protease and illustrates with plenty of 3-D pdb/mdl files. The files can be viewed/manipulated with the Chemscape Chime plugin (http://www.mdli.com/chemscape/chime/). The page might be of little use to students not acquainted with the role of protease, but otherwise it is a good source of information. Drug design is also discussed--the emphasis is on chemistry & crystallography rather than biochemistry. |
| Site: | HIV Replication Tutorial
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/Tutorials/224tut1/tut1hiv.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | FAST |
| Graphics: | SIMPLE/ADVANCED (yes, I know that sounds paradoxical) |
| Miscellaneous Features: | tests knowledge, but not a good reference source |
| Overall Rating: | 6 |
| Comments: | The user gets be the virus and make replication decisions. There are explanations along the way. Could be a fun way to get to learn about HIV replication. What's more useful is the following page connected to this: http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/335/Retroviruses.html (also reviewed) |
| Site: | Virus Replication
http://www.Tulane.EDU:80/~dmsander/WWW/335/335Replication.html |
| Load time: | MODERATE |
| Level: | INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED |
| Graphics: | APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | none |
| Overall rating: | 5 |
| Comments: | Provides in-depth overview of virus replication concentrating on HIV
in particular. Appropriate for the Biochem student uninitiated to
the virus replication cycle. Graphics are embedded in
the page, and are recycled from other pages at best.
|
| Site: | How HIV Causes AIDS--NIAID Fact Sheet
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/howhiv.htm |
| Load time: | SLOW |
| Level: | SIMPLE |
| Graphics: | LOW |
| Miscellaneous Features: | small glossary included |
| Overall Rating: | 5 |
| Comments: | This page may be useful for beginning biology students or advanced
lay people who want to get an overview of how
HIV causes AIDS. While the page attempts to limit the amount of detail in order to keep things simple, there is enough long-winded detail to keep the unacquainted reader bored, and not enough detail to be useful to the information-seeking biochemistry student. May be suitable as a self-contained overview. |
| Site: | Pathogenesis of AIDS
http://www.Tulane.EDU:80/~dmsander/WWW/335/335Replication.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | OVERVIEW/INTERMEDIATE |
| Graphics: | APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | good antigen-antibody graphic |
| Overall Rating: | 4 |
| Comments: | Not directly related to replication--includes speculation on the mechanisms involved in AIDS and references. The MHC-antibody graphics may prove useful, though. |
| Site: | Role of Vpu and Vpr in HIV-1 Replication
http://www.med.nyu.edu/Research/N.Landau-res.html |
| Load time: | FAST |
| Level: | OVERVIEW/SUMMARY |
| Graphics: | LOW/APPROPRIATE |
| Miscellaneous Features: | references may be useful |
| Overall Rating: | 4 |
| Comments: | Summary of work detailing the role of the Vpu and Vpr regulatory genes in HIV-1 whose roles are not very well understood. Although the page gives a description of the problem being studied, it does not discuss it in detail. The page is included here because the references may provide a good starting point |
Watch a long, useless, yet neat
movie of HIV
replicating
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/Video/HIV.mov
Watch an actual movie of a Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte destroying
a cell
http://www.cellsalive.com/ctl.htm
Animated GIF of HIV Protease
with an inhibitor lodged in it (© 1997, Oguz Yetkin)
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/graphics/animhiv.gif
HIV Replication Diagram, may be useful
for stealing (oops...I mean borrowing)
http://www.kumc.edu/instruction/medicine/pathology/ed/ch_9a/c9a_hiv_replication.html
MIDI File for "Waltz Around The Cycle" sing-along (for those in possession
of Biochemist's Songbook)
(Windows' default media player will play this)
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/waltzing_matilda.mid
MIDI File for British Grenadiers, same purpose
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/grenadr.mid
(MIDI files provided by Chad Seys)
