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Lecture-1 Introduction To Virology

The document provides an overview of virology, detailing the nature, diversity, and impact of viruses on living organisms. It discusses the characteristics of viruses as obligate intracellular parasites, their role in disease, and various applications in medicine and agriculture. Additionally, it highlights the mechanisms by which viruses replicate and interact with host cells, emphasizing their significance in the development of vaccines and antiviral treatments.

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Anaya Malik
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9 views31 pages

Lecture-1 Introduction To Virology

The document provides an overview of virology, detailing the nature, diversity, and impact of viruses on living organisms. It discusses the characteristics of viruses as obligate intracellular parasites, their role in disease, and various applications in medicine and agriculture. Additionally, it highlights the mechanisms by which viruses replicate and interact with host cells, emphasizing their significance in the development of vaccines and antiviral treatments.

Uploaded by

Anaya Malik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PRINCIPLES

OF VIROLOGY
(BSC-401)

Instructor: Fahed Parvaiz, Ph.D


CAS-PIFI Fellow
Post-Doc (Virology & Immunology)
What we think about viruses ?
Introduction to
virology

• Viruses are ubiquitous on earth.


• Infect all cellular forms i.e.
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes.
• Upon infection…typical
symptoms.
• Some viruses are non-
pathogenic.
• Some are active while some are
in quiescent phase.
• Some contain remnants of host
genomes
What is a virus?

1) Submicroscopic, obligate intracellular parasite.

2) Particles are produced from assembly of pre-formed


components.

3) Virus particles (virions) themselves do not grow or


undergo division.

4) They do not encode information for:


a- energy production
b- ribosomes
c-tRNAs (a few exceptions)
d- lipid membrane synthesis
Virus diversity:
From the beautiful….

Three Broken Tulips


By Nicolas Robert
(1624-1685)

Striping patterns on
tulips caused by tulip
mosaic virus infection.
…to the down right nasty!
Smallpox lesions in a child
Impact of Studying Virology

•This knowledge permits the development of effective means for


prevention, diagnosis and treatment of virus diseases through the
production of vaccines, diagnostic reagents and techniques, and
antiviral drugs. These medical applications therefore constitute
major aspects of the science of virology.
• Important factors to be studied in virology:
i. Nature
ii. Gene expression (Transcription and Translation)
iii. Mode of replication
iv. Cellular internalization
v. Interaction with host cellular factors/ proteins
vi. Host defense mechanisms
vii. Mechanism of pathogenesis
viii. Virus egress
Other areas of virology
• Veterinary virology and plant virology are also important
because of the economic impact of the many viruses that
cause disease in domestic animals and crop plants: foot
and mouth disease virus and rice yellow mottle virus are
just two examples.
• Another area where viruses can cause economic damage is
in the dairy industry, where phages can infect the lactic
acid bacteria that are responsible for the fermentations
that produce cheese, yogurt and other milk products.
Phage typing of bacteria

Enzyme production
Virus: A Pesticides
beneficial
Anti-bacterial agents
creature
Anti-cancer agents

Gene vectors
1. Phage typing of bacteria

• Some groups of bacteria, such as Salmonella species, are

classified into strains on the basis of the spectrum of phages

to which they are susceptible.

• Identification of the phage types of bacterial isolates can

provide useful epidemiological information during outbreaks

of disease caused by these bacteria.


2. Enzyme production

 A number of enzymes used in molecular biology

are virus enzymes.

 Examples:
Reverse transcriptase from retroviruses.

RNA polymerases from phages


3. Pesticides

 Some insect pests are controlled with

baculoviruses and myxoma virus.


4. Anti-bacterial agents

• Initially, bacteriophages were harvested for the

treatment of bacterial infections.

• Discovery of Antibiotics & eventually emergence of

drug resistant bacterial strains.

• Bacteriophages.
5. Anti-Cancer agents

• Genetically modified strains of viruses, such as herpes simplex

virus and vaccinia virus, are being investigated for treatment

of cancers.

• These strains have been modified so that they are able to

infect and destroy specific tumour cells, but are unable to

infect normal cells.


6. Gene vectors for protein production

• Viruses such as certain baculoviruses and


adenoviruses are used as vectors to take genes into
animal cells growing in culture. This technology can
be used to insert into cells genes encoding useful
proteins, such as vaccine components, and the cells
can then be used for mass production of the
proteins.
Addgene, Repository for Vectors
Nature of viruses
• Microscopic particles

• Contain genes

• Parasites
1) Viruses are microscopic
particles
• Evidence for the existence of very small infectious agents was first
provided in the late 19th century by two scientists working independently:
Martinus Beijerinck in Holland and Dimitri Ivanovski in Russia. They made
extracts from diseased plants, which we now know were infected with
tobacco mosaic virus, and passed the extracts through fine filters. The
filtrates contained an agent that was able to infect new plants, but no
bacteria could be cultured from the filtrates. The agent remained infective
through several transfers to new plants, eliminating the possibility of a
toxin. Beijerinck called the agent a ‘virus’ and the term has been in use
ever since.
• Mainly measured in nm.
• Smallest group of viruses include parvoviruses (20nm).
• Virology concerns with smallest yet among diverse group of
microbes.
2) Viruses contain genes
• Considered to be living primarily because of: DNA/RNA
and its replication.
• Mainly four different possibilties:

• double-stranded DNA

• single-stranded DNA

• double-stranded RNA

• single-stranded RNA.
• Genome: The genomic content of the virus together
makes up its genome.
• Capsid: The viral coating that protects its genome and
helps in the host viral interaction is known as capsid.
• Virion: The combination of viral genome, capsid and other
replication machinery together constitute Virion.
Viruses are extensively tiny yet favor
pathogenesis. How?

• There are several mechanisms:

i. Harboring host cell proteins


ii. Efficient coding
iii. Multifunctional proteins
i. Harboring host cell proteins
The genomes of large viruses duplicate
some of the functions of the host cell, but
the small viruses rely very heavily on
functions of the host cell.
ii. Efficient coding
There may be overlapping genes and genes
encoded within genes. The small genome of
Hepatitis B virus is a good example
iii. Multifunctional proteins
A virus protein may have several enzyme
activities.
3. Viruses are parasites
Viruses differ from cells in the way in which they

multiply. A new cell is always formed directly from a

pre-existing cell, but a new virion is never formed

directly from a pre-existing virion. New virions are

formed by a process of replication, which takes place

inside a host cell and involves the synthesis of

components followed by their assembly into virions.


Contd…

• Viruses are therefore parasites of cells, and are dependent on


their hosts for most of their requirements, including:

1. Building-blocks such as amino acids and nucleotides.


2. Protein-synthesizing machinery (ribosomes).
3. Energy, in the form of Adenosine triphosphate.
Contd…

A virus modifies the intracellular environment of its host in


order to enhance the efficiency of the replication process.
Modifications might include production of new membranous
structures, reduced expression of cell genes or enhancement
of a cell process. Some large phages encode proteins that
boost photosynthesis in the cells of their photosynthetic
bacterial hosts, thereby probably boosting the yields of virus
from the cells
“There is nothing so patient, in this world or any

other, as a virus searching for a host.”

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