Portal:Viruses

Portal topics - (Random portal)

Activities

Culture

Geography

Health

History

Mathematics

Nature

People

Philosophy

Religion

Society

Technology

edit

The Viruses Portal
Welcome!

Viruses are small infectious agents that can replicate only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all forms of life, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and archaea. They are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity, with millions of different types, although only about 6,000 viruses have been described in detail. Some viruses cause disease in humans, and others are responsible for economically important diseases of livestock and crops.

Virus particles (known as virions) consist of genetic material, which can be either DNA or RNA, wrapped in a protein coat called the capsid; some viruses also have an outer lipid envelope. The capsid can take simple helical or icosahedral forms, or more complex structures. The average virus is about 1/100 the size of the average bacterium, and most are too small to be seen directly with an optical microscope.

The origins of viruses are unclear: some may have evolved from plasmids, others from bacteria. Viruses are sometimes considered to be a life form, because they carry genetic material, reproduce and evolve through natural selection. However they lack key characteristics (such as cell structure) that are generally considered necessary to count as life. Because they possess some but not all such qualities, viruses have been described as organisms at the edge of life.

Introduction to viruses • More about viruses...

Show new selections below

edit

Selected disease

Dengue fever, or breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. Rarely, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue haemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.

Dengue is transmitted by several species of Aedes mosquito, mainly A. aegypti. First described in 1779, the incidence of dengue fever has increased dramatically since the Second World War, with around 390 million people infected each year, of whom about 40,000 die. The virus is endemic in more than 120 countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America. Infection with one of the five viral types usually gives lifelong immunity to that type but only short-term immunity to the others, and subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. Treatment of acute dengue is supportive, using oral or intravenous fluids for mild or moderate disease; blood transfusion may be required in more severe cases. A vaccine against dengue fever is available. Reducing mosquito habitats and limiting exposure to bites are the other main methods of control.

Archive

edit

Selected image

Ebola virus (coloured green), a filamentous RNA virus, budding from a chronically infected African green monkey kidney cell in culture.

Credit: BernbaumJG (28 August 2014)

Archive

edit

In the news

Portal:Viruses/News

More virus news

edit

Selected article

RNA interference is a type of gene silencing that forms an important part of the immune response against viruses and other foreign genetic material in plants and many other eukaryotes. A cell enzyme called Dicer (pictured) cleaves double-stranded RNA molecules found in the cell cytoplasm – such as the genome of an RNA virus or its replication intermediates – into short fragments termed small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). These are separated into single strands and integrated into a large multi-protein RNA-induced silencing complex, where they recognise their complementary messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules and target them for destruction. This prevents the mRNAs acting as a template for translation into proteins, and so inhibits, or silences, the expression of viral genes.

RNA interference allows the entire plant to respond to a virus after a localised encounter, as the siRNAs can transfer between cells via plasmodesmata. The protective effect can be transferred between plants by grafting. Many plant viruses have evolved elaborate mechanisms to suppress this response. RNA interference evolved early in eukaryotes, and the system is widespread. It is important in innate immunity towards viruses in some insects, but relatively little is known about its role in mammals. Research is ongoing into the application of RNA interference to antiviral treatments.

Archive

edit

Selected outbreak

The 1976 Zaire Ebola virus outbreak was one of the first two recorded outbreaks of the disease. The causative agent was identified as a novel virus, named for the region's Ebola River. The first identified case, in August, worked in the school in Yambuku, a small rural village in Mongala District, north Zaire. He had been treated for suspected malaria at the Yambuku Mission Hospital, which is now thought to have spread the virus by giving vitamin injections with inadequately sterilised needles, particularly to women attending prenatal clinics. Unsafe burial practices also spread the virus.

The outbreak was contained by quarantining local villages, sterilising medical equipment and providing protective clothing to medical personnel, and was over by early November. A total of 318 cases was recorded, of whom 280 died, an 88% case fatality rate. An earlier outbreak in June–November in Nzara, Sudan, was initially thought to be linked, but was shown to have been caused by a different species of Ebola virus.

Archive

edit

Selected quotation

“

An inefficient virus kills its host. A clever virus stays with it.

”

—James Lovelock

More quotations

edit

Selected virus

Sputnik virophage is a subviral agent, discovered in 2008, that infects Acanthamoeba protozoa. It is a satellite virus of giant viruses of the Mimiviridae family. It requires a mimivirus to infect the cell simultaneously to replicate, hijacking the virus factories that mimivirus creates and impairing its replication. Sputnik was the first satellite to be shown to inhibit the replication of its associated helper virus. Such viruses have been termed "virophages" or "virus eaters" – by analogy with bacteriophages, viruses that parasitise bacteria – but the distinction between virophages and classical satellite viruses that infect plants, arthropods and mammals is disputed. Three Sputnik types are now known, and other virophages have since been discovered, now classified in the Lavidaviridae family, including the Zamilon, Mavirus and Organic Lake virophages. All virophages that have been characterised infect protists and all rely on nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses as helpers.

Sputnik's non-enveloped icosahedral capsid is 74 nm in diameter, and contains a circular double-stranded DNA genome of 18.3 kb. Three of its 21 predicted protein-coding genes are thought to derive from Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, suggesting that virophages and giant viruses can swap genes during their joint infection of Acanthamoeba, and also that virophages might mediate horizontal gene transfer between giant viruses.

Archive

edit

Did you know?

...that in 2008, chronic bee paralysis virus was discovered in the carpenter ant Camponotus vagus (pictured)?
...that during the 2008–09 flu season in the United States, only 14.1% of influenza tests were positive for influenza?
...that the World Health Organization's Weekly Epidemiological Record reports on neglected tropical diseases?
...that residents of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada, blocked access to a local goldmine over fears of COVID-19, even though Nunavut then had no confirmed cases?
...that HIV researcher Diane Havlir was the U.S. national short-track champion in 1974?

More DYKs

edit

Selected biography

George Keble Hirst (2 March 1909 – 22 January 1994) was an American virologist who was among the first to study the molecular biology and genetics of animal viruses.

Hirst started to work on influenza virus in 1940, only a few years after it had been isolated. He soon discovered that the virus caused red blood cells to clump together. This phenomenon could be used to diagnose influenza, which had previously required growing the virus in ferrets. He invented the haemagglutination assay, a simple method for quantifying viruses, and later the haemagglutination inhibition assay, which measures virus-specific antibodies in serum. In 1942, he discovered the neuraminadase enzyme, showing for the first time that viruses could contain enzymes. Neuraminidase is the target of the neuraminidase inhibitor class of antiviral drugs, including oseltamivir and zanamivir. In 1962, he was also the first to propose the then-revolutionary idea that virus genomes can consist of discontinuous segments.

He co-founded Virology in 1955, the first English-language journal to focus on viruses, and directed the Public Health Research Institute in New York City for nearly 25 years (1956–81).

Archive

edit

In this month

1 September 1910: Peyton Rous shows that a sarcoma of chickens, subsequently associated with Rous sarcoma virus, is transmissible

3 September 1917: Discovery of bacteriophage of Shigella by Félix d'Herelle

8 September 1976: Death of Mabalo Lokela, the first known case of Ebola virus

8 September 2015: Discovery of giant virus Mollivirus sibericum in Siberian permafrost

11 September 1978: Janet Parker was the last person to die of smallpox

12 September 1957: Interferon discovered by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann

12 September 1985: Structure of human rhinovirus 14 (pictured) solved by Michael Rossmann and colleagues, the first atomic-level structure of an animal virus

17 September 1999: Jesse Gelsinger died in a clinical trial of gene therapy using an adenovirus vector, the first known death due to gene therapy

20 September 2015: Wild poliovirus type 2 declared eradicated

26 September 1997: Combivir (zidovudine/lamivudine) approved; first combination antiretroviral

27 September 1985: Structure of poliovirus solved by Jim Hogle and colleagues

28 September 2007: First World Rabies Day is held

More events

edit

Selected intervention

Oseltamivir (also Tamiflu) is an oral antiviral drug against influenza (flu). It was the second inhibitor of the viral neuraminidase to be developed, after zanamivir, and the first to be taken as an oral tablet. It was originally synthesised from shikimic acid extracted from the star anise plant. Oseltamivir is a prodrug that requires metabolism in the liver to the active form, oseltamivir carboxylate. This binds at the active site of the neuraminidase enzyme, preventing it from cleaving sialic acid to release the virus particle from the host cell. Oseltamivir can reduce the duration of influenza symptoms by 0.5–1 days. Debate is ongoing about whether it also reduces the risk of complications, such as pneumonia. Nausea and vomiting are the main adverse events. Resistance to oseltamivir has been observed in some strains of influenza virus, especially H1N1 strains.

Archive

edit

Subcategories

Subcategories of virology:

Virology

Branches of virology

Viruses

Diagnostic virology

Viral diseases

Viral genes

History of virology

Virology journals

Viral life cycle

Virology organizations

Viral proteins

Satellite viruses

Slow virus diseases

Subviral agents

Viroids

Virologists

Virotherapy

Virucides

Viruses

edit

Topics

edit

Things to do

Comment on what you like and dislike about this portal
Join the Viruses WikiProject
Tag articles on viruses and virology with the project banner by adding {{WikiProject Viruses}} to the talk page
Assess unassessed articles against the project standards
Create requested pages: red-linked viruses | red-linked virus genera
Expand a virus stub into a full article, adding images, citations, references and taxoboxes, following the project guidelines
Create a new article (or expand an old one 5-fold) and nominate it for the main page Did You Know? section
Improve a B-class article and nominate it for Good Article or Featured Article status
Suggest articles, pictures, interesting facts, events and news to be featured here on the portal