Suhua Song

11/12/2020

Oberle

Microbiology

Journal 3 2

This week I’ve learned about the types of viruses that affect the nervous system. One of

them is called rabies. It causes violent behavior, as well as partial paralysis and loss of motor

function - kind of like a zombie. The violent behavior makes bites much more likely, and

therefore spreads the virus. Rabies is always fatal once the causative virus reaches the

CNS( with the exception of the one patient you mentioned in your video actually surviving from

rabies through induced coma). Rabies has evolved to spread between mammals through saliva

(bites). That is its transmission route. What’s really interesting about rabies is that it causes

hydrophobia- fear of water. Hydrophiobia occurs when patients begin to experience significant

difficulty and pain with swallowing.This is because the process of swallowing is a complex

sequence of coordinated movements by muscle and tissue. With the motor and sensorial nerves

affected, both autonomous and directed movements become disrupted, interrupted or even

impossible. When compounded by the delirium and frequent dehydration these patients

experience, they become very agitated when given a glass of water, as they cannot quench their

thirst and the act of trying is very painful.

What’s also so interesting about rabies to me is the fact that it can “hop” between

distantly related species. Virus often(usually?) have a high specificity to certain species or small

group. Most diseases seem to be isolated to one species, with the occasional jump to another

species because of a lucky mutation but rabies seems to be able to jump with no problem
whatsoever. So I found that it’s because most warm blooded mammals share the nicotinic

acetylcholine receptor that rabies uses as its main entry receptor. Another reason is the stealthy

nature of rabies. It slowly replicates (1-3 months incubation period in humans) and is not

expressed on plasma membranes. It is essentially hidden from the body by continuously

internalizing its glycoprotein, making infected cells invisible to the immune system and infected

cells burst a lot slower than what other viruses do. A third reason is its ability to promote cell to

cell spread by binding motor proteins and reorganizing infected cells to create cell surface

projections. Fourth reason is the simplicity of the virus - just five proteins and the virus’s host

binding partners are potentially not very specific - promiscuous binding as opposed to a lock and

key binding.