VIRUSES: A POTENT PATHOGEN IN OUR DAILY LIFE

In 1898, Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch found evidence that the cause of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock was an infectious particle smaller than any bacteria. This was the first clue to the nature of viruses, genetic entities that lie somewhere in the grey area between living and non-living states.

Viruses are tiny organisms that may lead to mild to severe illnesses in humans, animals and plants. This may include flu or a cold to something more life threatening like HIV/AIDS.

A virus is a small, infectious, obligate intracellular parasite, capable of replicating itself in a host cell. Virions are formed by de novo assembly from newly synthesized components: the genome and a number of copies of at least one viral protein.  Viruses have been found in all cellular forms of life, from bacteria to chordates. Pathogenic human and animal viruses are causative agents of serious diseases such as AIDS, encephalitides, hepatitides, influenza, SARS, etc. Plant viruses are responsible for many major agricultural problems. Therefore, studying various viruses and their interaction with hosts is a prerequisite for finding remedies against viral diseases and understanding the principles of the organization of life.  How big are viruses? The virus particles are 100 times smaller than a single bacteria cell. The bacterial cell alone is more than 10 times smaller than a human cell and a human cell is 10 times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair. Are viruses alive? Viruses by themselves are not alive. They cannot grow or multiply on their own and need to enter a human or animal cell and take over the cell to help them multiply. These viruses may also infect bacterial cells. Viruses depend on the host cells that they infect to reproduce. When found outside of host cells, viruses exist as a protein coat or capsid, sometimes enclosed within a membrane. The capsid encloses either DNA or RNA which codes for the virus elements. While in this form outside the cell, the virus is metabollically inert; examples of such forms are pictured below.

The virus particle or the virions attack the cell and take over its machinery to carry out their own life processes of multiplication and growth. An infected cell will produce viral particles instead of its usual products.

Structure of a virus

A virus particle, also known as a virion, is essentially a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) enclosed in a protein shell or coat. Viruses are extremely small, approximately 15 - 25 nanometers in diameter.

A virion (virus particle) has three main parts:

• Nucleic acid – this is the core of the virus with the DNA or RNA (deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid respectively). The DNA or RNA holds all of the information for the virus and that makes it unique and helps it multiply.
• Protein Coat (capsid) – This is covering over the nucleic acid that protects it.

Lipid membrane (envelope) – this covers the capsid. Many viruses do not have this envelope and are called naked viruses.

When it comes into contact with a host cell, a virus can insert its genetic material into its host, literally taking over the host's functions. An infected cell produces more viral protein and genetic material instead of its usual products. Some viruses may remain dormant inside host cells for long periods, causing no obvious change in their host cells (a stage known as the lysogenic phase). But when a dormant virus is stimulated, it enters the lyticphase: new viruses are formed, self-assemble, and burst out of the host cell, killing the cell and going on to infect other cells. The diagram below at right shows a virus that attacks bacteria, known as the lambdabacteriophage, which measures roughly 200 nanometers.

How do viruses infect?

Viruses do not have the chemical machinery needed to survive on their own. They, thus seek out host cells in which they can multiply. These viruses enter the body from the environment or other individuals from soil to water to air via nose, mouth, or any breaks in the skin and seek a cell to infect.

A cold or flu virus for example will target cells that line the respiratory (i.e. the lungs) or digestive (i.e. the stomach) tracts. The HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) that causes AIDS attacks the T-cells (a type of white blood cell that fights infection and disease) of the immune system.

Viruses cause a number of diseases in eukaryotes. In humans, smallpox, the common cold, chickenpox, influenza, shingles, herpes, polio, rabies, Ebola, hanta fever, and AIDS are examples of viral diseases. Even some types of cancer -- though definitely not all -- have been linked to viruses.

Life cycle of a basic virus

1. A virus particle attaches to a host cell. This is called the process of adsorption
2. The particle injects its DNA or RNA into the host cell called entry.
3. The invading DNA or RNA takes over the cell and recruits the host’s enzymes
4. The cellular enzymes start making new virus particles called replication
5. The particles of the virus created by the cell come together to form new viruses. This is called assembly
6. The newly formed viruses kill the cell so that they may break free and search for a new host cell. This is called release.

Viruses themselves have no fossil record, but it is quite possible that they have left traces in the history of life. It has been hypothesized that viruses may be responsible for some of the extinctions seen in the fossil record (Emiliani, 1993). It was once thought by some that outbreaks of viral disease might have been responsible for mass extinctions, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs and other life forms. This theory is hard to test but seems unlikely, since a given virus can typically cause disease only in one species or in a group of related species. Even a hypothetical virus that could infect and kill all dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, could not have infected the ammonites or foraminifera that also went extinct at the same time.

On the other hand, because viruses can transfer genetic material between different species of host, they are extensively used in genetic engineering. Viruses also carry out natural "genetic engineering": a virus may incorporate some genetic material from its host as it is replicating, and transfer this genetic information to a new host, even to a host unrelated to the previous host. This is known as transduction, and in some cases it may serve as a means of evolutionary change -- although it is not clear how important an evolutionary mechanism transduction actually is.

SHAILESH KR SHUKLA

167shailesh.bot@gmail.com