The seven stages of the HIV life cycle are:
1) Binding 2) Fusion 3) Reverse Transcription 4) Integration 5) Replication 6) Assembly 7) Budding
1. Binding: HIV virus binds to the host cell.
2. Fusion: The HIV Virus fuses with the cell membrane of the host cell which allows HIV contents
Including RNA, reverse transcriptase, integrals and other proteins enter the cell.
3. Reverse Transcription: Inside the cell, HIV RNA is converted into DNA using reverse transcriptase.
4. Integration: Integrase enzyme allows HIV DNA to be integrated into the host DNA.
5. Replication: HIV can now produce long chains of HIV proteins which can be used to build more HIV.
6. Assembly: HIV proteins and RNA move to surface of cell and are assembled into immature HIV.
7. Budding: Immature HIV is pushed out of the cell and proteases activate immature into mature infectious HIV.
