Viruses, Immune Evasion and HIV Flashcards
What is otitis media?
List 2 pathogens that cause it.
Where are these pathogens obtained from?
- An inflammatory disease of the ear.
- Caused by Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae (bacteria).
- These bacteria are part of the normal commensal flora.
How does otitis media arise?
Give an example of another infection that came about in the same way.
- Viral infections of the nasopharynx can lead to inflammation.
- This promotes the conditions in which bacteria of the normal commensal flora thrive.
- Another example is the Spanish flu, where influenza caused Streptococcus pneumoniae to cause bacterial pneumonia.
What is the Red Queen hypothesis?
That organisms must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate in order to survive in a constantly changing environment.
What is the difference between antigenic shift and antigenic drift?
- Antigenic shift is the process by which two or more different strains of a virus combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the original strains.
- Antigenic drift involves the accumulation of mutations within the genes that code for antigens.
- Shift is more sudden than drift.
Give an example of a pathogen that does not undergo antigenic shift / drift.
Why is this pathogen unable to do so?
What is the clinical consequence of this?
- Measles.
- It cannot tolerate mutations due to changing protein stability.
- Only one vaccination for measles is therefore necessary.
What is the difference between positive sense (group 4) and negative sense (group 5) rna?
- Positive sense (group 4) is 5’ to 3’, and therefore does not need to be converted into mRNA.
- Negative sense (group 5) is 3’ to 5’, and is complementary to the viral mRNA.
Why are negative-sense (group 5) RNA genomes more genetically diverse than positive-sense (group 4) RNA genomes?
Because of the difficulties of expression, positive-sense (group 4) RNA genomes tend to have smaller genomes than negative-sense (group 5) RNA genomes, and therefore encode less genetic information.
Which type of RNA genomes are more commonly segmented?
Why?
What is the advantage of segmentation?
- Negative- sense (group 5) RNA genomes.
- Because they generally encode more genetic information.
- Segmentation allows for reassortment of genetic information.
Which type of RNA viruses require RNA polymerase?
Why?
- Negative-sense (group 5) only.
- Because positive sense (group 4) RNA do not need to be transcribed before being translated.
Define ambisense.
Partly negative sense and partly positive sense.
Which type of RNA genomes are sometimes ambisense?
Negative sense (group 5).
- Debate over whether they should be part of a separate group.
Give an example of a virus that has an ambisense genome.
Lassa virus.
List 4 negative sense (group 5) RNA viruses.
1 - Ebola.
2 - Measles.
3 - Lassa.
4 - Influenza.
Briefly describe the organisation of the influenza virus genome.
- Contains 7 or 8 RNA segments that are numbered by size.
- Segments 1 - 6 encode 1 protein each.
- Segments 7 and 8 encode 2 proteins each.
List 2 clinically important genes of the influenza virus.
1 - Gene 4: haemagglutinin (H or HA).
2 - Gene 6: neuraminidase (N or NA).
What is the receptor for human influenza?
What about bird and swine flu?
From which molecules are these receptors derived?
- Human influenza has 2-6 sialic acid.
- Bird flu has 2-3 sialic acid.
- Swine flu has both 2-3 and 2-6 sialic acid.
- These are derivatives of neuraminic acid.
What is amantadine?
What is its mechanism of action?
- An antiviral drug that was used to treat influenza.
- It works by binding to the M2 ion channel protein active site.
When did viral resistance to amantadine arise?
Which mutations conferred this resistance?
- In the 2005/2006 flu season.
- An S31N point mutation in the M2 ion channel protein.
What is original antigenic sin?
The tendency of the body’s immune system to preferentially utilise immunological memory based on a previous infection rather than a new primary response when a second slightly different version of that pathogen is encountered.
What is superinfection?
Where 2 viruses mix in the same cell, causing a new infection being superimposed on an earlier one.