Viruses Flashcards
Describe the characteristics of the beta-herpes viruses
- Restricted host range
- More likely to affect immunocompromised patients
- Grow more slowly in culture
- Infected cells have cytomegaly
How many people infected with poliovirus will become severely ill? How many will be paralyzed?
Poliomyelitis causes…
- Transient viremia in 95% of infected patients
- Short-lived, relatively mild illness
- Sustained viremia in 5% of infected patients
- Fever, headache, sore throat
- Poliomyelitis in <1% of infected patients
- Asymmetric, assencding paralysis to some degree
- Range in severity
- Frank paralysis in <0.1% of infected patients
What is the pathogenesis of Parvovirus B19?
- The virus targets erythrocyte progenitors
- This prevents the synthesis of new red blood cells
- The virus is mild or benign in healthy children
- The 5th diesease (Erythema infectiosum)
- “Slapped cheek appearance” onset after low grade fever breaks
- Quick recovery without complications
- However, it has more severe effects in anyone with a shorter red blood cell lifespan
- Aplastic crisis in persons with hemolytic anemia
- Chronic aplastic anemia in AIDS patients
- Hydrops fetalis (heart failure) infetuses
What do ss(–)RNA viruses use to convert ss(–)RNA to mRNA and genomic ss(+)RNA?
Viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase
What characteristics of pathogenicity make rotavirus particularly contagious?
- <100 particles are needed to cause infection
- Lots of viruses are shed in the stool
- 2 days before diarrhea begins - 10 days after it ends
- Spread via contaminated hands and objects
- Survive for hours on hands, days on objects
What does Oseltamivir treat?
What is the mechanism of action?
Oseltamivir = Tamiflu; influenza antiviral
Cleaves terminal sialic acid from sialic acid-containing glycoproteins. This inhibits neuraminidase and prevents the release of the virus from the host cell nucleus(cannot spread to other cells)
Which test can distinguish acute EBV from past EBV infection?
anti-EBNA IgG
- Will be negative during primary EBV infection
- Will be positive when primary infection has subsided
- And the host has established IgG antibodies
Which virus represents the leading causes of congenital mental retardation and hearing loss?
HCMV
List the viruses (discussed in FDN3) that can be transmitted by mosquito.
Identify the type of mosquito
Aedes
- Chikungunya virus
- Dengue fever
- Zika Virus
Culex
- West Nile Virus
Which virus is the exception to the rule “All DNA viruses are replicated in the nucleus?”
Poxvirus
What is hydrops fetalis?
Who does it affect?
- Hydrops fetalis is heat faliure in a fetus
- May be caused by infection by parvovirus B19
- It leads to abortion
- A pregnant woman infected with parvovirus B19 can pass the infection on to her fetus
- <10% of fetuses with an infected mother get hydrops fetalis
- Most dangerous in the first 2 trimesters
Describe the clinical presentation of HHV6 in a young child
HHV6 = 6th disease = Roseola
- Typicaly occurs at 6 mo - 2 yo
- 3-4 days of high fever (>104 F)
- May cause febrile seizures
- As fever subsides, body rash that spares the face forms
- Lacy red rash
- The illness is self limiting
- Can be treated with ganciclovir or valganciclovir
How is Hepatitis A contacted?
From where?
Fecal-oral route
- Endemic to resource-limited countries with poor water sanitation
- In resouce-abundant countries, people can contract hepatitis A from shellfish that was caught in contaminated water
Describe Astrovirus
Type of virus:
Capsid:
Envelope:
Nucleic acid:
Astrovirus
Type of virus: Astroviridae (eneterovirus)
Capsid: Icosahedral
Envelope: Non-enveloped
Nucleic acid: (+)ssRNA
Describe the capsid and envelope of:
Poxvirus
Complex capsid (brick-shaped)
Enveloped
What are the important properties/differentiations of the viral genome?
- RNA or DNA
- Single-stranded or double stranded
- Linear or circular
- Segmented or not
- If single-stranded
- Positive sense, negative sense, or ambisense
- Size (from 3,500 nt to 280 kbp)
What is the site of latency of HCMV?
Mononuclear cells, PMNs, and/or vascular endothelial cells
What is the clinical presentation of measles?
- Fever
- Cough, coryza, conjunctivitis (The 3 C’s)
- Koplick’s spots
- Clustered white lesions on buccal mucosa
- Appear 2-3 days before rash
- Rash
- Complications are relatively common
Which virus presents with parotitis and/or orchititis?
Mumps
What is the most common primary infection of VZV?
Describe the symptoms
Chickenpox
- Systemic disease
- Fever, headache, body rash
- “Dew drop on rose petal”
- Adults may have complications
- Pneumonia
- Encephalitis
Where do alpha herpes viruses remain latent?
HSV-1, HSV-2, and VZV all reamain latent in the sensory/dorsal root ganglia
(HSV may also be in autonomic ganglia)
Describe the beginning of a new rotavirus infection in a new host cell
- The outer layer of the TLP is removed during uncoating, after entry into the host cell
- Trsncription of the dsRNA -> (+)ssRNA occurs in the DLP
- This “hides” the dsRNA from host pattern recognition receptors (dsRNA is a PAMP)
- The (+)ssRNA is capped by VP3, a viral capping enzyme
- The capped (+)ssRNA is exported from the DLP
- This capped (+)ssRNA looks a lot like a host mRNA
- The viral (+)ssRNA is translated using host machinery
Describe the clinical presentation of astroviridae
Diarrhea
Nausea
Vomiting (but less than norovirus and rotavirus)
Typically not severe (no dehydration)
Primarily affects children
What is required in the penetration stage of the viral productive replicative cycle?
What occurs?
Energy-dependent
- Enveloped viruses
- Fusion of viron envelope with plasma membrane (some)
- Endocytosis
- Fusion with endosome membrane
- Non-enveloped viruses
- Translocation of virus/viral genome across plasma membrane (some)
- Endocytosis
- Translocation across endosome



