Oseltamivir Flashcards
What is flu? What are the symptoms?
Highly contagious acute viral infection that affects people of all ages. Fever, coughing, sore throat, chills, muscle pains, fatigue, headache
Why are vaccines only affective for a few years?
The influenza virus mutates very quickly
How many strains does the WHO predict will be in widest circulation each year?
3 or 4
How long is needed to formulate and produce the vaccine on a large scale?
6 months
What is a pandemic?
Prevalent throughout an entire country, continent or the whole world
What does zoonotic mean?
Transferred between species
What are the two proteins on the extracellular side of the virus?
Haemagglutinin and neurominic acid
What are the first two steps in the viral replication cycle?
There is binding to the target cell and endocytosis
What is the step after endocytosis?
proton channels allow protons to enter for lowering the pH for rupture
What does the viral DNA do?
Hijack’s the cell’s replication machinery to make copies of itself
What happens after replication?
There is assembly of components, budding and release of the virus.
What do M2 ion channel protein inhibitors do?
Block the proton channel so no protons move into the vesicle containing the virus
Why aren’t the M2 ion channel protein inhibitors used any more?
The influenza virus is immune to them now, they had off target effects in the CNS.
Explain one theory of how Ribavirin works.
It’s carboxamide group can make the native nucleoside drug resemble adenosine or guanine so when it is incorporated into the DNA it pairs with uracil or cytosine. This causes mutations in DNA dependent replication. The hypermutation can disrupt the viral replication cycle.
What does neuraminidase normally do to the haemagglutinin attached to the cell?
Cleaves it
