Viruses

Lecture Day 3
 Viruses
 Viruses lack most characteristics of life – and are not considered to be alive
 Cannot reproduce without a host cell
 Do not metabolize
 Are not composed of cells

 BUT viruses do have means to increase in number - to “reproduce”

 A virus is composed of two things

 Nucleic acid - DNA or RNA (not both) – the genetic material
 Proteins - A protein coat, called a capsid, houses the nucleic acid

 Some viral diseases include

 Ebola, AIDS, smallpox, chickenpox, influenza, shingles, herpes, polio, rabies, hantavirus

 Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria

© 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Viruses

© 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Viruses are Cellular Parasites
Viruses contact the preferred host cell and inject their nucleic
acid into the host
The host cell then becomes a virus making factory
Producing new viruses using instructions from the injected
viral nucleic acid
Viruses are not affected by antibiotics
They have no cell wall to break down
No metabolic pathways to destroy
Viruses are treated with antiviral drugs that interfere with some
parts of their “life cycles”
 Viruses May Infect in Two Ways

Lysogenic cycle – viral nucleic acid remains dormant in host cell

Lytic cycle – virus may immediately affect host cell

© 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Virus Infecting Host Cell
Viral Diseases – “Polio”
 Poliomyelitis (polio) attacks the nervous system
 Enters through the mouth, reaches the intestine, and multiplies
 From the intestine, attacks the nervous system, rapidly causing symptoms
 In worst cases, total paralysis can result after just a few hours of viral
attack
 The usual symptoms of the virus are flu-like: neck pain, fever, fatigue,
vomiting, and pain in the limbs
 Infected people are able to spread the virus for the first few weeks of
infection, when they shed newly formed polio virus particles with their feces
 Person to person contact also causes the virus to spread, especially in
areas where hygienic conditions are poor
 Poliomyelitis is currently endemic in only four countries
 Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan
Viral Diseases – “Measles”
 Highly contagious
 Spread through person-to person contact
 inhale virally infected droplets from coughs
and sneezes
 Virus multiplies in the lining of the throat and
lungs
 High fever, runny nose, cough, watery eyes,
and characteristic white spots inside the
mouth
 Soon after these white spots show up,
measles skin rash develops with small red
bumps
 These symptoms are not fatal
 complications may lead to blindness,
encephalitis, severe diarrhea, ear infections,
and pneumonia
 Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in
measles cases
Viral Diseases – “Ebola”
 Caused by the Ebola virus
 Four types of Ebola virus

 Transmitted by direct contact with blood and

bodily fluids of infected people
 Symptoms of the disease begin anywhere
from 2 to 21 days after contact
 Sudden fever, intense weakness, severe
headaches, muscle pain, and sore throat
 As the disease progresses, vomiting,
diarrhea, and impaired kidney and liver
function appear
 Internal and external bleeding
 Viral Diseases – “Influenza”

 Causes respiratory distress, muscle aches, fever, chills, general lethargy, and
severe headaches
 Circulating flu viruses found throughout the world are divided into two
subtypes
 Influenza A (more virulent)
 Responsible for the pandemics of the past century
 Avian flu (“bird flu”) resides in the domestic chicken population but has infected
humans, causing severe symptoms
 Usual transmission routes require direct contact with infected foul
 Influenza B is the common flu
 This virus is easily passed from person to person, traveling through the air in
droplets created during coughing and sneezing
 One to four days after inhaling viral particles, the viral symptoms are felt
 Infected individual can spread the flu virus from a day prior to feeling symptoms to
seven days afterward
Routes of 1918 Spanish Flu Transmission

© 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Viral Diseases –
“Hantavirus

Hantavirus poses a threat to humans residing in the middle of

the United States, in the “Four Corners” area
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah
Carried by mice and is spread to humans through inhalation
of dust filled with their dried and aerated urine and feces
Initially, the symptoms of hantavirus are flu-like
Within a few days the patient feels better, but symptoms
quickly return with associated respiratory difficulties
As infection progresses, lungs fill with fluid, leading to rapid
respiratory failure and possibly death
Viral Diseases: West Nile Virus
West Nile virus is a bird virus carried and
transmitted by mosquitoes
In humans, causes inflammation of the brain
and tissues surrounding the brain and spinal
cord
Symptoms are identical to those of the flu, with
body aches, stiff neck, and sore muscles
In some cases the symptoms disappear after 2
to 10 days, while in others neurological damage
may be permanent