Most of you have probably seen viruses displayed like this:
Or maybe like this:
Or maybe this is what you associate with the word virus:
So what does a virus actually look like? That’s something our immune system wonders about too. Viruses exist in many forms and they tend to mutate over time. If our immune system wants to react to the threat a virus poses, it needs to know what it looks like to get rid of cells that have been infected.
Generally, there are two types of virus. Those without a hull
And those with one
Those without a hull are basically just a piece of DNA (or RNA) enclosed in a protein shell, the capsid, which is built from smaller units, the capsomeres. Additionally to the genetic information, the virus also contains several enzymes that are important for its reproduction, but more about that later.
The hull around some viruses is made of lipids (= fat) and provides some additional protection.
The immune system recognizes patterns on either the capsid or the hull and reacts to those.
But how does a virus work?
@mcfarhat wrote an excellent post called Are Viruses .. Alive? which details how weird viruses are compared to all the living things we encounter in our daily life.
A virus can’t create offspring by itself, it can’t multiply. If you want to grow yeast in a lab, you add some yeast cells to a nutrient solution, keep them warm, shake them a bit and wait a few hours. If you want to grow a virus, you need to provide host cells the virus can infect. @suesa
To explain how the virus uses the host to procreate, we will take a look at the HI-virus ( = HIV, please don’t say HIV-virus).
This specific virus is a retrovirus
Ok, no, not like this. Retro is the latin word for backwards and that’s important. At first, the biological community thought that DNA is always translated into RNA which is translated into amino acids which are put together to a protein. It had been a dogma for a significant amount of time.
The retrovirus doesn’t care about dogmas.
A retrovirus contains RNA instead of DNA. This RNA is translated into DNA when the virus enters the cell, then translated back into RNA. That’s were the retro comes from.
So what does the HI-virus do?
It sticks to the CD4 receptor of T-lymphocytes and merges with the membrane of the cell it is attacking, releasing its genetic material into the cell. The RNA is translated into DNA ( = reverse transcription) and integrated in the cell’s own genome.
Then, the virus can rest for some time. Not every virus infection has an immediate effect. But at one point, the virus DNA will become active and the cell starts producing everything needed to build a new virus. Some viruses even stop the cell’s own protein production, which obviously kills the cell at some point.
The HI-virus lets the host cell build one new virus after another and release them into the body, where they can infect new T-lymphocytes. And the cycle continues.
Not every virus works the same, but the general approach is usually alike. Infect the cell and make it produce building blocks for a new virus until it dies.
Sources:
Lecture “Immunology – Innate immune system” by Barbara Walch-Rückheim
Lecture “HIV – AIDS” by Sigrun Smola
All pictures that are not pencil sketches are taken from pixabay.com
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I wouldn't mind seeing a little about nerve cells as they relate to memory. There's so much conflicting info that it kind of all turns into a Sci-fi plot.
I'll keep it in mind :)
Finally a post tagged as science that is, in fact, related to science.
Thank you for not posting pseudo-science or anti-science bullshit tagged as science. This community needs more of you and less of the others.
That's what steemSTEM is for :) I recommend checking out that tag instead of science, the content is usually better.
Oh thank you. Didn't know that (I'm new here). Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for sharing ,i love the way you put everything in your articles..well explained and understandable..Keep steeming @suesa
hhhhh great explanation @suesa ;) and i liked your drawing so much
there is one Virus I would like to get rid of trump
hahaha there are two trumps @bigp52 the steemit @trump and the business man trump, the first maybe you can get rid of him but the second can buy a whale flag and get rid of you me an all of us first hahahaha so let us stick with HIV virus now ;)
yes virus can not breed by itself,
viruses multiply by collecting components to create new viruses.
the virus is living a true parasite.
@suesa but I can leave a comment, does the virus have a stimulus tool ?
thank you, good science
Would love to know that as well. Do they just work automatically or something actually "motivates" them?
Dude, best virus pictures ever. Can I say they are "viral" pictures? I'll resteem to try to help them become a different kind of viral picture.
This post was super interesting btw. Thanks for it.
I love bad puns 💚
*dudette!
First Mcfarhat, then you... I guess it's my turn to write about a weird virus!
Tip!
Omg @suesa, I love your posts! You are very consistent and very clever, I love it.
hello sir,
nice to meet you.I am new in this site.
I just upvote and followed you so please
upvote and follow me.
And thank's for this post
loved your depiction of the retro virus .. makes them look cool, defying general consensus :P
and thanks for the mention ;)
I think it builds the community to reference each other's posts :D
(also frees me from providing even more sources and answering the same topic you already covered)
yes a win on all ends ! :)
hello sir,
nice to meet you.I am new in this site.
I just upvote and followed you so please
upvote and follow me.
And thank's for this post
hello, @suesa your post : WTF is a Virus?
I enjoyed reading your post
How we protect from these ?
Depends on the virus
Lemons!
Onions and garlic!
... or is that vampires?
Hey @suesa
Nice article.
Now i'm following you.
Hope to get more interesting articles in future.
@shivangi
Please join me :-)
I enjoyed reading this but had no idea what RNA was.
Maybe I should make a post about this too :P then again that might be a bit boring. RNA is similar to DNA with a few structural differences.
Thank you for this intriguing post, I really enjoyed it! If you’re looking for a new Steemit friend, feel free to follow and I’ll follow you back!
Interesting and informative thanks for sharing your knowledge @suesa following you
Thank you💐💐💐💐 for this intriguing post,👍👍👍👍 I really enjoyed it👌👌👌👌
But are viruses alive? What are phages? Those things kill bacteria and viruses.
What kind of phage are you talking about?
A bacteriophage is a virus that eats cells.
A phagocyte is a immune cell that eats bacteria and viruses.
Phage comes from the greek word phageĩn which means to eat.
And if you want to know if viruses are alive I recommend reading the post by @mcfarhat I linked in the text :)
Viruses are the connecting link between living and non-living entities.
hello sir,
nice to meet you.I am new in this site.
I just upvote and followed you so please
upvote and follow me.
And thank's for this post
I recommend not to comment just to self-promote. Many people, me included, see this as spam and flag it.
Nicely explained about Virus. Some viruses are so dangerous that there is no effective treatment while other's infection is self limiting.
Some dangerous viruses:
Nice drawings :D
:-)
nice post. I'm following you. hope to see more posts in the future.
Thank you for improving our general knowledge with your knowledge in biology, microbiology. It is always a pleasure to read you. And your drawings have made me smile.
Love it simple but usefull thanks @suesa
Hi @suesa! @trumpman is sending you 0.1 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)These obligatory intracellular parasites mainly rhinoviruses disturbs me very much..!
Well written post on virology. Can I expect viroids next? :p
throws dice nah but how about some AIDS?
Yh AIDS will also be a good topic and it is regarding virus as well. I personally eager to know about the advance stage of HIV through that post and also your series will have a great flow for the readers :)
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very very interesting post
interesting blog i like you gif @suesa
Such a good post about science....
Viruses are really weird living/non-living things. Their working as you have explained @suesa, is awesome and reminds me of Cyanovirus, which can reanimate even dead cells. This is really unbelievable.
Viruses can convert a healthy cell into a zombie cell and even control it!
@suesa also write a post on bacteria of body which affect our behaviour, food habits and even intelligence. :D
Inspired by one video by the YouTube channel kurtzgesagt. :p
I got a great short story on that topic. It's about 4 months old so upvoting is pretty useless but maybe you'll enjoy it!
https://steemit.com/fiction/@suesa/love-goes-through-the-stomach
It's about how the bacteria in your intestines can influence your emotions.
Wow, really amazing. Gonna read it. Thanks @suesa for your awesome work in science section. :)
Haha the drawings totally made this article even better :D. I always wondered what exactly is a virus and this article definitely explained it!
Great and concise explanation about HI retro virus. (following)
This is the first post that I have seen since I first made my steemit, and I liked your post, it is very useful. I hope you to continue like this 😊 all the best
Uhmm..@suesa I think I already saw this retrovirus.. It's agent Javier Pena from Narcos! :-D
Shhhh! He's undercover.
Im in a flight..the best time to catch up with your excellent articles.."soy El fuego que arde tu pieeel" :-P
https://steemit.com/steemstem/@light-o-trix/defense-strategy-and-capabilities-development-across-the-globe-is-it-a-threat-for-the-human-race
Spamming only gets you flagged, especially with this huge amount of spam.
Sorry I was unaware of the spamming process, I am new and just learning. From next time onward I will utilize your valuable guidance. Thanks for informing me!!