Antiviral agents Flashcards
Which viral proteins form viral capsids?
Capsomeres
What shape are viral capsids?
Have a geometric resemblance (Icosahedral in terms of phage)
What is a virion?
A virus particle outside a cell
What is the structure of lambda phage?
Icosahedral head and tail, involving the helical sheath and tail fibers, the head contains the double-stranded linear DNA
How do phage enter into cells?
Upon recognizing the host cell, the phage particle binds onto binding receptors (via attachment glycoproteins)n located on the surface of the bacterium, injects DNA through the tail into the cytoplasm of the bacterial cell, whilst the capsid remains outside
What is the lytic phage pathway?
The lambda DNA is replicated by undergoing transcription (Viral MRNA), and translation, synthesizing the production of viral proteins needed for the formation of new viruses.
Capsomeres and viral proteins are assembled into viruses, encapsulating the viral genome within
Cell lysis occurs releasing a large number of identical virions into the environment
What is the lysogenic pathway?
Alternatively, the lambda phage DNA can be integrated into hosts genome, consequently when the cell undergoes division, the genetic material including the integrated phage DNA (prophage) is replicated, thus increasing the proportion of cells infected with phage.
The host is considered to be lysogen in the presence of prophage
What is the induction phase of viruses?
Specific conditions or selection pressures which stimulate the prophage to enter the lytic cycle. These are factors that affect the viability of the host cell and ultimately the virus, triggering the virus to be released
What is episomal latency?
Viral nucleic acids remain inactive but free in the cytoplasm or nucleus of the infected cell
What is proviral latency?
The viral nucleic acid becomes incorporated into the DNA of the infected host cell. It is now termed a provirus, however, with episomal latency, the viral nucleic acid can be reactivated any time
What is prophylaxis?
A preventative measure, a prophylactic is a medication or a treatment designed to prevent the occurrence of disease, preventing disease before the aetiological agent is acquired. Example: Baccinion or administration of the drug before the infection
What are the vaccines used for viruses?
Prophylactic treatment; attenuated pathogens and (antigenic fragments), involves herd immunity and target group safety > efficacy; provided by the WHO/government
What is therapy in terms of drug treatment?
Treating a diagnosed patient upon host infection, antiviral therapy and diagnostics are coupled, diagnostic measures are regulated to identify the specific drug towards treating the particular virus.
Antiviral drugs: Therapeutic random screening for specific effective chemicals or employ hypothesis-driven rational design; prescribed to target group on ad hoc basis
What are nucleosides?
Substrate analogs; nucleosides incorporated through viral DNA/RNA synthesis. Nucleosides are chemically modified, altering the affinity in order to selectively target viral enzymes
What is rational drug design?
Employed to specifically target viral components, and structure (crystallography), molecules can degrade the structure
What is AZT, which viral enzyme does it inhibit?
Resembles a nucleotide and competitively inhibits the enzyme reverse transcriptase
What is acyclovir, which viral enzyme does it inhibit?
Cyclic guanosine analog, behaving as a chain terminator of polynucleotide DNA elongation viral DNA polymerase
What is Raltegravir?
Inhibits the viral enzyme integrase used by retrovirus to integrate their DNA into the host genome (Endonucleases)
What is Tamiflu?
A competitive inhibitor of the viral enzyme neuraminidase that many viruses, including the influenza virus use to escape from cells
What is ribavirin?
It resembles an RNA nucleotide, and inserts into viral RNA, preventing translation from occurring. Therefore, this means that the production of new viral proteins for capsids or viral genomes cannot occur.
What is the mechanism of action for acyclovir?
1) Entering into the host cell –> Thymidine kinase phosphorylates acyclovir into acycloguanosine monophosphate (Acyclo-GMP)
2) Acyclo-GMP by guanylate kinase is phosphorylated into acylco-guanosine diphosphate by host cell
3) Phosphotransferse converts Acylo-GDP into Acylo-GTP, this active form has a stronger affinity, and is inserted into the polynucleotide chain, terminating the chain, as phosphodiester bonds cannot form
Which analog is acyclovir?
A cyclic analog of 2’deoxyguanosine
Which viral enzymes activates the inactivate acyclovir analog?
Thymidine kinase
What function is performed by thymidine kinase?
A phosphotransferase responsible for the phosphorylation of nucleosides to nucleotides
Which enzyme phosphorylates Acylo-GMP to GDP?
Guanylate kinase