How Viruses Cause Disease Flashcards
Who was responsible for principles of vaccination, pasteurisation and germ theory?
Louis pasteur
Who invented the electron microscope?
Ruska and knoll in 1931
What are viruses?
Simple micro organisms that are not cable of independent existence
What do viruses need to be able to exist?
- Require a host cell to survive
- They enter the host cell and use the host cells energy and mechanism to replicate
- Once they have replicated they leave the host cell progeny
Describe the basic viral structure
- Dna or RNA
- Capsid protein
- Lipoprotein envelope (only present in some viruses)
- Molecules of protein
What is a single virus particle referred as?
Virion
What are viruses classified by?
- The type of nucleic acid they carry (DNA vs RNA)
2. The presence or absence of an envelope
Give the 5 steps involved in the viruses life cycle
- Attachment
- Entry
- Replication
- Assembly
- Release
How can the virus enter the body?
Can be inhaled, ingested or injected
What determines if a virus can enter the host cell
The viral tropism determines if a virus can attach and enter
What does viral tropism mean?
It describes if the host cell is passive to the virion and allows it to enter and use its equipment
Which cells can HIV attach to?
HIV can only attach to human cells that have a CD4 receptor
Which cells can SARS-CoV-2 attach to?
SARS-CoV-2 can only attach to human cells with ACE-2 receptors
What do we mean when we describe a host cell as passive?
It contains the whole range of components required by the virus for replication to be completed
What step happens after attachment?
Entry into host cell
If the virus attaches does it 100% enter the cell?
NO
Efficiency varies from <0.1% to 50%
How do enveloped viruses enter a cell?
Enter by membrane fusion or endocytosis
How do non enveloped viruses enter a cell?
Entry by endocytosis or penetration (direct injection)
Talk through the basic stages of membrane of fusion
- Receptor binding
- Virus with host membrane fusion
- Release of vision content into host cytoplasm
Give an example of a virus that enters via membrane fusion?
HIV
After a virus enters the cell what does it need to do?
Replicate
How does the virion start the replication process?
Once inside the host cell the virus will remove its capsid and exposes its genomes (Nucleic acid)
Can the virus cell uncoat its capsid anywhere in the cell?
No
Site of uncoating is specific to the virus
May be cytoplasm or nuclear
What process in host cells to viruses hijack?
The process of DNA replication and protein synthesis
Talk through the stages of protein synthesis in humans
- Transcription of DNA into messenger RNA
- Translation of mRNA into Amino
- Translocation
What does the replication of viruses depend on?
Process depends on the type if nuclei acid the virus has
What is necessary to make viral protein
Viral mRNA
What does viral mRNA do?
- Viral mRNA mimics host mRNA
- Uses the host cell machinery to make viral proteins instead of host proteins
- New virions are constructed from viral proteins
Which type of viruses can immediately start using host cells processes to translate their protein
Why?
Single stranded positive sense RNA viruses
e.g. hepatitis C
This is because their genome is already mRNA
Describe the genome of influenza
Single stranded negative sense RNA viruses
What must influenza first make before it can start replicating?
Must create mRNA
How does influenza create mRNA?
- Carries its own enzyme (RNA dependent RNA polymerase)
- This enzyme is used to create positive sense RNA (mRNA) through complementary base pairing
- mRNA then used to translate proteins
Give examples of proteins needed to create new virions
- Structural proteins
- Enzymes (proteases) to chop up structural proteins into smaller building blocks
- Enzymes needed to replication when they invade new host cells
After replicating what does a virus do?
Assemble
What happens in the assembly stage of a virus’ life
All virus components are transported to a site of assembly and put together