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Influenza A virus thesis
Impacts of the influenza pandemic
Influenza A virus thesis
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Almost every age group is at higher risk for severe flu circumstances. Influenza virus is a kind of single-strain RNA virus with its membranes made of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), both of which are glycoproteins. The vast issue arising these days regarding the control of influenza disease is the development of resistance among the influenza viruses against existing anti-viral drugs that are being approved. Also, these antiviral drugs have a number of side effects. Riboswitches are present in the non-coding region of mRNA that sense changes in the cellular environment and directly mediate appropriate gene control responses. These riboswitches are primarily found in the 5’ untranslated regions of messenger RNAs. Riboswitch can
The Influenza virus is a unique respiratory viral disease that can have serious economic and social disruption to society. The virus is airborne transmitted through droplets release by coughing or sneezing from an infected person or by touching infected surfaces. Symptoms range from mild to severe and may even result in death. People with the virus usually experience fever, headache, shivering, muscle pain and cough, which can lead to more severe respiratory illness such as pneumonia. People most susceptible to the flu virus are elderly individuals and young children as well as anyone whose health or immune system has been compromise. The most effective way to counteract the influenza virus is to get the flu vaccine which is available by shots or nasal spray before the flu season as well as practicing safe hygiene. (CDC, 2013)
A few years before 1918, in the height of the First World War, a calamity occurred that stripped the globe of at least 50 million lives. (Taubenberger, 1918) This calamity was not the death toll of the war; albeit, some individuals may argue the globalization associated with the First World War perpetuated the persistence of this calamity. This calamity was referred to the Spanish Flu of 1918, but calling this devastating pestilence the “Spanish Flu” may be a historical inaccuracy, as research and historians suggest that the likelihood of this disease originating in Spain seams greatly improbable. Despite it’s misnomer, the Spanish Flu, or its virus name H1N1, still swept across the globe passing from human to human by exhaled drops of water that contained a deadly strand of RNA wrapped with a protein casing. Individuals who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with the contents of the protein casing generally developed severe respiratory inflammation, as the Immune system’s own response towards the infected lung cells would destroy much of the lungs, thus causing the lungs to flood with fluids. Due to this flooding, pneumonia was a common cause of death for those infected with Spanish Flu. Due its genetic similarity with Avian Flu, the Spanish Flu is thought to be descended from Avian Flu which is commonly known as “Bird Flu.” (Billings,1997) The Spanish Flu of 1918 has had a larger impact in terms of global significance than any other disease has had because it was the most deadly, easily transmitted across the entire globe, and occurred in an ideal time period for a disease to happen.
Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .
The epidemic began at around the end of the first World War and was the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. Some symptoms of the influenza included muscle pains, sore throat, headache, fever, glandular disturbances, eye aberrations, heart action slowing, and depression of all bodily functions and reactions. The flu is highly contagious and spreads around easily whenever an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. This global disaster was nicknamed the “Spanish Flu,” or “La Grippe.” The nickname of the Spanish Flu came from one of the earliest countries to be hit hard by influenza; eight million people in Spain were killed in the May of 1918. There were also other nicknames for the epidemic. The French called it “purulent bronchitis,” the Italians named it “sandfly fever,” and the Germans labeled it “Blitz Katarrh.” The Influenza Epidemic of 1918, a virus that spread throughout the globe, affected the world in many ways and had many devastating after effects.
Kimball, Dr. John. A.S.A. “Influenza.” 8 Feb. 2007. Kimball’s Biology Page. 23 July 2007 http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/I/Influenza.html>.
Over the past fifteen years H5N1 influenza (also known as Avian Flu or Bird Flu) has become a common topic of speculation and debate worldwide, causing quite a bit of confusion about its possible impacts on our society. At this point in time it is generally recognized by the international medical community that Avian Flu is bound to become a pandemic, most likely within the next ten years. Research on Avian Flu and its effects have led many scholars to make grave predictions of major global turmoil while a small portion of medical scientists remain skeptical, believing we will have enough time to thoroughly prepare for the outbreak. The one thing that nearly all health professionals seem to agree upon is that the avian flu will surely have a large impact on the development of humankind. To truly understand the threat of this disease and what we must do to prepare for it, we need to look at the issue from multiple angles and consider what the spread of a disease so lethal and so prone to mutation would mean for our daily lives, health professionals, laws and government procedures, and of course the continuation of the human race.
The influenza virus is an enveloped virus that contains a genome of eight genes that define what the virus is. Everything begins when the virus enters the airways. Here, influenza viruses specifically attach to the surface of epithelial cells. The viral membrane envelope contains the neuraminidase (NA) protein, which is important for the efficient release of newly produced viruses. It also contains the matrix 2 (M2) ion channel that promotes viral structural changes during cellular entry as well as the influenza hemagglutinin (HA) protein, the key player for viral internalization, which facilitates viral binding to sialic acid decorated receptors on host cells, causing adsorption to the host cell (Samji, p. 3). Barry compares the HA proteins to little spikes and the NA proteins to tiny trees that both protrude all around the surface of the virus (p. 103). When the HA protein spikes come into contact with the sialic acid molecules, both structures bind to one another. Once this binding holds the virus and host cell together, the virus has achieved its first task of adsorption. Next, the virus particles are internalized into endosomes by clathrin mediated endocytosis. The pH of the endosomes drops tr...
The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between twenty and forty million people. (1) Influenza is a virus that appeared in 1918 and caused a pandemic. It made an enormous impact that is still significant to the world today. It has pushed scientists to make advancements in the medicine and vaccination industry that continue to grow each and every day. Influenza may be a horrible thing, but without it we wouldn’t be where we are today.
At no time was a search for the cure for influenza more frantic than after the devastating effects of the pandemic of 1918. The pandemic killed somewhere between twenty and a hundred million people, making it twenty five times more deadly than the ordinary cough and sneeze flu. The symptoms of this flu were like something straight out of a horror movie: the victim’s facial complexion changed to a dark, brownish purple, the feet turned black, and they began to cough up blood. Eventually, death was caused, literally by drowning, when the victim’s lungs filled with their own blood. The first scientist to claim to solve the enigma of influenza was Dr. Friedrich Johann Pfeiffer. He isolated a bacterium he named Hemophilus influenzae from the respiratory tract of those who had the flu in the pandemic of 1890. He was believed to be correct in his discovery until the pandemic of 1918, when scientists searched the respiratory tracts of influenza victims and only sometimes found his bacterium. Robert E. Shope and his mentor Paul Lewis were the next to attempt to crack the code of influenza. They chose to study the disease in pigs, a controversial choice because many people believed that the swine influenza pigs were contracting was not the same as the human flu. The first experiment they ran was ba...
Four years ago the good citizens of this city voted to allow city funds to be allocated toward a new civic center located in the heart of Irvine. Four years ago the good citizens of this great city had no idea that a terrible pandemic would threaten their very lives and the lives of their loved ones. When signs of the flu season came around in late October this year, no one would have imaged that a disease, often with symptoms like a common cold, would have by the end of the year killed almost half of those killed in the Great War itself. Places all across the nation have had to deal with the sick and dying and Irvine is no exception.
Influenza is a financial burden to society, thus it is extremely important to find a treatment that will alleviate the problems associated with influenza (WHO, 2017). The Baloxavir Marboxil is a newly discovered treatment that is currently in the process of being developed by a Japanese pharmaceutical company called Shionogi. This innovative treatment is a single-dose pill that can potentially eradicate the influenza virus within twenty-four hours, as shown in the diagram below (Refer to figure. 2) the Baloxavir Marboxil prevents the virus from replicating through inhibiting the enzyme that is required for the multiplication of the influenza virus. (Hafner, 2018) & (Grens, 2018).
1. DC's batarangs is referring towards the weapons Batman uses and repulsor ray's are the beams fired from Iron Man's palms. Both companies have switched their names from 'comics' to 'entertainment' because that's where the money is. Still Marvel manages to bring in more money with their Iron man comics vs batman comics. Overall money wise it seems more in Marvel's favor.
The Flu is the common name influenza which is a virus that attacks the respiratory system. The flu virus releases its genetic information into the cells nucleus to replicate itself. When the cell dies, those copies are released and they affect other cells throughout the rest of the body. With that happening the virus weakens the immune system. When your sick with the flu, your body builds up a defense by making antibodies against it. The flu virus spreads through air when a person coughs, sneezes, or speaks.
The swine influenza or swine flu is a respiratory disease in pigs that is caused by the type A influenza viruses. These viruses are referred to as swine flu viruses but scientifically the main virus is called the swine triple reassortant (tr) H1N1 influenza virus. When the viruses infect humans they are called variant viruses. This infection has been caused in humans mainly by the H1N1v virus in the United States. The H1N1 virus originates in animals due to improper conditions and the food they ingest. The virus stays in latency form, thus harmless to the respective animal. The longer the animals survive the more likely the virus is to develop and strengthen making it immune to vaccines. The virus reproduced through the lytic cycle. The virus injects its own nucleic acids into a host cell and then they form a circle in the center of the cell. Rather than copying its own nucleic acids, the cell will copy the viral acids. The copies of viral acids then organize themselves as viruses inside of the cell. The membrane will eventually split leaving the viruses free to infect other cells.
In 1918-19 approximately 50 million deaths were a detriment of the Spanish H1N1 virus pandemic; a respiratory virus. According to the World Health Organization, the second Influenza A H1N1 pandemic in 2009 spread to more than 200 countries causing more than 18 000 deaths. Before the World Health Organization had announced the official end of the pandemic in August 2010, in July 2009 the World Health Organization sent out a phase 6 warning that H1N1 could soon be a global pandemic. It is important to recognize that the 2 different outbreaks had different A/H1N1strains effecting the world population; this suggests A/H1N1has a high ability for mutation, severely complicating the human body’s natural immune mechanism of antigenic drift. (Qi-Shi Du et al., 2010)