1. The HIV protein(s) most likely to be recognized by the human immune response would be
a) reverse transcriptase
b) protease
c) the viral core proteins
d) CD4
e) gp120
2. The “S” in AIDS stands for “syndrome.” What is a syndrome?
a) a disease caused by a single infectious agent
b) a disease that is caused by any of a variety of infectious agents
c) a condition characterized by a single, well-characterized symptom
d) a condition characterized by a collection of symptoms or diseases
e) a diseased condition whose course of progression is so severe that death occurs in the vast majority of cases
3. The cell type that is required for virtually every part of the immune response is
a) T helper cell
b) T killer cell
c) B cell
d) phagocyte
e) red blood cell
4. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, AIDS was known as GRID. What did GRID stand for?
a) Generalized Reduction of Immunity Disorder
b) Gay Related Immune Deficiency
c) Greatly Reduced Immunity Disease
d) Growth of Rare Infections Disorder
e) Gradual Retrograde Immune Degeneration
5. Which of the following cell types makes antibodies that are secreted into the blood?
a) T helper cell
b) T killer cell
c) B cell
d) phagocyte
e) red blood cell
6. A person who is genetically unable to make the CCR5 protein on the surface of his/her cells
a) has progressed to frank (full-blown) AIDS
b) cannot raise an immune response and thus has a hereditary immune deficiency with
symptoms that resemble those of AIDS
c) is much more sensitive to HIV infection than a person who can express CCR5
d) is much more resistant to HIV infection than a person who can express CCR5
e) is dead (CCR5 is required for survival)
7. Why was there such a good collection of blood samples available for the gay men in San Francisco taken before AIDS (GRID) had even been identified?
a) Blood samples were part of the health exam required for getting a membership card to use the bathhouses
b) There was a plague of hepatitis and many gay men participated in a study to track its spread, requiring regular blood sampling
c) “Gay bowel syndrome” was so prevalent and doctors suspected a bloodborne pathogen, thus leading them to preserve a sample every time they treated this syndrome
d) Gay men were being arrested as “prostitutes” and the prostitution laws required that blood be tested for syphilis
e) San Francisco was part of a (failed) pilot project for the state of California in which a blood sample was to be taken whenever a person applied for a driver’s license
8. The condition we now know as HIV disease or AIDS was first recognized
a) in prehistoric times
b) in the 1350’s (during the “great plague”)
c) between 1492 and 1495
d) between 1950 and 1960 (retrospectively)
e) between 1980 and 1985 (as a disease)
9. A macrophage (phagocyte) is most active in eating a virus if
a) a T killer cell is also bound to the virus
b) the virus is coated with antibodies
c) the virus has the same “self” molecule as the macrophage
d) the virus is pathogenic
e) the virus is in the bloodstream rather than in the lymph nodes
10. Many of the first dozen or so San Franciscans who died of AIDS could be traced through sexual encounters (either directly or indirectly) to a single individual. Who was he?
a) Larry Kramer
b) Jim Curran
c) Jay Levy
d) Cleve Jones
e) Gaetan Dugas
11. When a cell of the immune system binds to an antigen (a substance it can recognize), it can become activated and begin to divide rapidly and thus make many copies of itself. Other similar cells that are not bound to a antigen divide only slowly if at all. This rapid proliferation of a single cell with a particular antigenic specificity is know as
a) antibody diversity
b) major histocompatibility
c) humoral immunity
d) clonal expansion
e) antigen presentation
12. The “Polymerase Chain Reaction” (or PCR, for short) is sometimes used to monitor HIV infection. It is designed to amplify the amount of something so that it can be more easily detected. What is it designed to amplify?
a) DNA
b) core antigens
c) gp120
d) human antibodies against HIV
e) CD4
13. The three major genes of HIV make about three times that many proteins. For example, one of the genes, pol, codes for three different proteins. This happens because
a) reverse transcriptase transcribes the pol gene into three separate pieces, each of which codes for a different protein
b) integrase integrates three different genes into the pol gene and each of these codes for a protein
c) protease cuts a large, inactive protein (encoded by the pol gene) into three smaller pieces, each of which is an active protein
d) the HIV genes interact, thus pol codes for one protein, pol+env makes a second protein, and pol+gag makes a third protein
e) the pol gene can be read in the forward direction, the reverse direction, or both directions
14. The largest number of people infected with HIV live in
a) Africa (including both north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa)
b) Asia (including both India and southeast Asia)
c) Europe (including Russia)
d) North America (including Central America)
e) South America
15. Which of the following cells is a generalist? That is, which does not undergo gene-shuffling to generate a highly specific recognition molecule (an antibody or its equivalent)?
a) T helper cell
b) T killer cell
c) B cell
d) phagocyte
16. Why is Grethe Rask in the book And the Band Played On?
a) She kept track of orders for pentamidine (used to treat Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia)
b) She kept lists of early AIDS victims in San Francisco and their sexual contacts
c) She detected a retroviral enzyme (reverse transcriptase) in the blood from AIDS patients
d) she headed the Presidential Commission on AIDS during the Nixon Administration
e) She died of AIDS
17. Pictures of HIV taken with an electron microscope show that it is an enveloped virus with an inner core that is shaped like a
a) thread
b) football
c) cone
d) regular icosahedron
e) sphere
18. The most important mode of transmission of HIV in Africa is
a) homosexual intercourse
b) heterosexual intercourse
c) injection drug use
d) blood transfusion
e) re-use of contaminated needles in hospitals and clinics
19. Which of these cell types can bind to an antigen and stimulate itself to begin dividing rapidly?
a) T helper cell
b) T killer cell
c) B cell
d) phagocyte
e) red blood cell
20. The main reason that most people’s immune system cells do not attack their own body is that, ordinarily,
a) the gene shuffling is designed so that no such antibodies are possible
b) the body’s cells can resist attack by an immune response by disabling the T helper and T killer cells
c) the cells that would recognize “self” are forced to commit suicide during their maturation and development
d) the human immune response is not active against human tissue
21. What is CD4?
a) a protein on HIV that recognizes the CCR5 receptor
b) a protein present on T cells but not macrophages that is responsible for the conversion of HIV from M-tropic to T-tropic
c) a protein on present on macrophages but not T cells that is responsible for the conversion of HIV from M-tropic to T-tropic
d) a protein present on a small number of cell types and absolutely required for HIV infection
e) a protein lacking in people who have been repeatedly exposed to HIV but never infected
22. Which of the following diseases would be least likely to lead you to suspect that your friend was HIV positive?
a) pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP)
b) Kaposi’s sarcoma
c) toxoplasmosis
d) oral thrush
e) genital herpes
23. Paul Popham, Larry Kramer, and others in the Gay Mens Health Crisis group did most of their work in
a) New York City
b) San Francisco
c) Los Angeles
d) Chicago
e) Washington DC
24. The most common test used in bulk to screen the blood supply used for transfusion is designed to detect
a) HIV-derived RNA
b) “core antigens” i.e., proteins derived from the viral core
c) reverse transcriptase
d) protease inhibitors
e) human antibodies against HIV
25. Why did we begin this course by studying Mary Mallon? (What relevance does she have to a course about AIDS?)
a) Because tuberculosis can be silent but infectious for years, just like AIDS
b) Because she her “sickness” was the first to be defined by a microbiological test (finding the typhoid bacterium in her stool), just as AIDS is defined by finding HIV in the blood
c) Because cholera is almost 100% fatal, just like AIDS
d) Becasue she was the “index case” for influenza, the first person to bring it to New York.
e) She was the grandmother of Robert Gallo