Sketchy Micro: Rhabdovirus

Question 1

Rhabdovirus causes ____________.

Answer 1

rabies (like the rabid junkyard dog)

Question 2

What kind of virus is Rhabdovirus?

Answer 2

• Negative-sense ssRNA (like the orange hues of the junkyard and the moon in the background)
• Enveloped (like the guard dog’s hoodie)

Question 3

Rhabdovirus is said to have a __________ shape on electron microscopy.

Answer 3

“bullet” (like the bullets on the rabid guard dog’s collar)

Question 4

What shape is the Rhabdovirus capsid?

Answer 4

Helical (like the guard dog’s funny tail)

Question 5

What are the most common carriers of Rhabdovirus?

Answer 5

Bats (like the bats on the center tree)

Note: foxes, skunks, and racoons can also carry Rhabdovirus, and they’re all drawn here, too.

Question 6

Rhabdovirus binds to what kind of receptor?

Answer 6

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (like the nicotine in the cigar being smoked by the central dog; also, he’s standing next to some crunched Acetyl Cola cans)

Question 7

Which cells does Rhabdovirus bind first?

Answer 7

The post-synaptic cholinergic NMJ cells (represented by the socket behind the dog next to the cans)

Question 8

______________ determines how long the latency period of Rhabdovirus is.

Answer 8

Proximity to the CNS

It works along peripheral motor neurons back to the spinal cord. Symptoms generally arise when the virus gets to the spinal cord, thus bites and infections closer to the spinal cord will develop symptoms faster.

Question 9

Rhabdovirus replicates in ________________.

Answer 9

motor neurons

(Think of the little puppies –replicates of the larger guard dog –under the wheel well near the motor region of the car.)

Question 10

Before spreading to the brain, Rhabdovirus infects _____________.

Answer 10

dorsal root ganglia (like the roots behind the tree in the background)

Question 11

What are the ultimate symptoms of rabies?

Answer 11

• Fever (burglar sweating)
• Encephalitis (red turban on burglar)
• Foaming at the mouth (burglar foaming at mouth)

Question 12

Brain biopsies of a person who died of rabies might show __________________.

Answer 12

Negri bodies, which are eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusions, in the hippocampal pyramidal cells and Purkinje fibers of the cerebellum

(Think of the boat called iNtEGRIty with the pink spots and seahorse graffiti: it has a pyramid-shaped tent in the seat. Also, there are bungee cords –representing Purkinje fibers –dangling from the tree that looks like Purkinje fibers in the cerebellum.)

Question 13

What treatment should be offered to those with early rabies symptoms?

Answer 13

• Antibodies (represented by the antibody-shaped keys on the burglar’s belt)
• Killed vaccine (like the needle-shaped bayonet with the skull on it in the hand of the burglar)