General Properties of Viruses

Virology is the bioscience for study of viral nature,and the relationship between viruses and hosts. Viruses often cause serious diseases,relate to some cancers and congenital deformities, also can be used as tool for genetic engineering. General properties of viruses Viruses blong to the non-cellular microbe. They are small infectious elements, and contain only one kind of nucleic acids as their genome replication which takes place only in living permissive cells (superparasitism). Size: Shapes Spherical,rod-shaped, bullet-shaped,brick-shaped, filament, tadpole-shaped. Structure and chemical compositions Viral core 1. 2. Site; in the center of the virus. Compositions: viral nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA, maybe double or single stranded; infectious nucleic acid. Functions: control the viral heredity and variation,responsible for the infectivity. small viruses: less than 50nm. median viruses: 50-200nm. large viruses: larger than 200nm.

3.

Capsid 1. 2. Site: surround the viral genome, outer of the viral core. Compositions and arrangement a. Protein in nature and consists of some capsomeres. b. Symmetry in arrangement: helical symmetry; cubic or icosahedral symmetry; complex symmetry.

3.

Functions a. protect the viral nucleic acid. b. participate in the viral infection. c. share the antigenicity.

Envelope Not all viruses have the envelope, and viruses can be divided into 2 kinds: enveloped virus and naked virus. 1) Site: on the surface of some viruses. 2) Composition: lipid, protein and carbohydrate. 3) Functions: antigenicity, infectivity and resistance; some viruses possess neuraminidase. viral nucleic acid and protein Culture and Replication of viruses Obligate intracellular parasitism 1. Replication only in living cells, the host cells supply the material, energy and environment of viral replication. Replication in permisssive cells: not produce toxic materials for viral replication.

2. cultivation

a. Principles of viral cultivation a) Living and sensitive cells

b) Proper sites of animals, tissues and embryonated eggs b. Three main methods a) Animals inoculation: susceptible animals and proper mode of inoculation. b) Embryonated egg or chicken embryo inoculation: the sites to be usually used are chorioallantoic membrane, allantoic sac,amniotic sac and yolk sac.

c) Tissue and cell culture: the cell lines to be usually used are primary cell line, secondary cell line and propagated cell line. The manifestations of viral replication are: Cytopathic effect (CPE) Inclusion body Hemadsorption Interference Plaque formation; ID50; TCID50. Immunofluorescent assay Mode of replication Self-replication, use self nucleic acid as the template and repeat multiplication. Replicative cycle 1. 2. Definition Phases a. Adsorption: viruses adsorb to the permissive cell surfaces. a) Random adsorption: ionic attraction. b) Specific adsorption: specific receptors. b. Penetration: viruses enter the permissive cells. a) Viropexis: always the naked viruses such as adenovirus, etc. b) Fusion: always the enveloped viruses. c) Other: such as bacteriophage which injects viral nucleic acid into the cell. c. Uncoating: the capsid proteins are removed by lysozyme and the viral nucleic acid releases into the certain part; once the process of uncoating has begun, the infectious virus can not be discovered from the infected cell (eclipse phase).

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Biosynthesis Replication of viral nucleic acid. Protein synthesis-------early proteins-------later proteins a. Types of viral nucleic acids: 6 types. Biosynthesis of dsDNA viruses: e.g. adenovirus. Maturation or assembly and release a) Maturation or assembly: nucleic acids and capsids are assembled together. b) Release

e.

disintegration: naked viruses cause the host cell lysis. budding: enveloped viruses.

CPE of viral Replication IFN Products of viral replication 1. 2. Virion: the complete infectious unit of virus particle. Defective virus: deficiency in some aspects of replication, but interfering the replication of normal viruses. Abortive infection: viruses enter into cells, but can not bio-synthesize their components or not assemble virions.

3.

Viral variations Tradition genetics 1. Variation: there are two important variations which relate well with medical practices. 1) Antigenicity variation: in most viruses the antigenicity is stable but in some viruses such as influenza virus the antigenicity may vary and cause the disease to epidemic. 2) Virulence variation

artificial cultivations Virulent viruses--------less virulent viruses and always used in prophylaxis. 2. Mutation: temperature sensitive (ts) mutant 3. Recombination Molecular genetics Classfication of Viruses Subviruses:Viroids;Virosoid;Prion