How a Virus Finds a Host Essay

Introduction AIDS and the hissing flu have raise concerns about computer computer virus attacks in the public eye. Infectious transfer of virus in addition very often ca mathematical functions the common cold. We atomic number 18 able to acquit or overcome the vast legal age of vir theatrical roles, but few of them make head elbow room in causing us to fall ill, even to the point of death. non everyone responds to a virus epidemic in the same way somewhat overpower the pathogen, while early(a)s succumb.A fundamental understanding of the nature of a virus evoke solve these apparent paradoxes its apparatus of taking trade protection in support tissue is also relevant. It is worth noning at the first-class honours degree that viruses search for all contour lines of plants and animals as hosts. Each type of virus has a particular preference of host. A virus is versatile and can qualify make water with ease.Basic genetic expressions and schemas A virus is a grad e of bridge between a form of life and an inanimate object. any breathing things are made from permutations and combinations of four nucleic acids, adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine. Sequences of nucleic acids form genes. Genes are in turn banded together, to form chromosomes.The nucleic acids are joined together by ribose sugars. The last mentioned has one molecule of sugar absent. The structure is entwined in the form of double helix coils inside the nucleus of each nutriment cells. The latter are grouped together in higher forms of life to form tissues and organs. The nucleic acid structure inside each nucleus is called Deoxyribonucleic acid or deoxyribonucleic acid. deoxyribonucleic acid is used by life forms to father Ribonucleic acids or ribonucleic acid. ribonucleic acid has ribose sugar with the oxygen molecule missing in desoxyribonucleic acid. ribonucleic acid has skillful one strand of nucleic acids, as opposed to two in deoxyribonucleic acid. RNA has urac il instead of thymine. RNA bms out from the nucleus to the cytoplasm of brio cells. RNA is used to produce proteins, which act as the materials of life forms. DNA and RNA physiology is at the heart of all life. It is a common system from unicellular life forms to human beings. Protein production by RNA and RNA production by DNA is the chemical basis of life. This is a process, which continues without ceasing from vagary to death.Insidious nature We are now ready to look at the nature and structure of a virus. A virus has a structure similar to RNA (Lewin, 744). However, the host DNA does not produce it. It also differs from RNA in that it may have a protective membrane made of protein.A virus is a kind of imposter. It finds a way inside a cell and abuses the hosts DNA to produce proteins of its consume. Since a virus has no DNA, it does not qualify as a life form in the strict sense. However, as it able to use host DNA to produce protein, and since it has the ability to replica te, it shares an essential property of living things. The fine distinction between a virus and a living cell with a nucleus could remain in the academic domain, were it not for the deleterious ability of a virus to threaten well-being and indeed life itself. A mitigating factor is that a virus cannot survive on its own it must have a bun in the oven shelter within the nucleus of a living cell, and is entirely dependant on the host DNA.Cat and filch Higher forms of life, such as human beings, do not decline to virus attack without a weight-lift, and they most often win. A virus enters a host with the medium of foreign living tissue. visible rout outs such as sputum, blood, semen, and mucus are the most common agents of viral transfer between one living body and anformer(a). Transmission is habit if two members of a species are involved.A virus may now and consequently adapt from one genus, even an order, or a phylum to another. Thus, an avian virus can cloud a mammal, even a human. It can pop from one bird to another almost inevitably. Viruses know that they cannot always commit to find a host of the same species in which they currently lodge (Watson et all, 1016).A virus is always on the search of a bare-assed host for its use of the present hosts DNA can be fatal for that host. The virus get out have no use for a dead host, and must hence find a vernal life to infect. It has developed a great adaptive capability, and can queue to the DNA of a new host, which may be an entirely contrastive form of life in which it has existed before. A bird flu virus in a scandalmongering would like a healthy chicken in which it can spread. Should other chickens be scarce, it will try to infect some other bird it can find.It will find out for a human if it can find no bird or other animal. It is worth repeating that the bird flu virus can move from one bird to another bird or from one bird to a human, only through oral or nasal of anal retentive dis sharpe n from the infected and original host. Should the latter be isolated, then the virus is doomed to extinction with the death of its host. Infection is essential for viral transfer. brute bodies, especially human beings have powerful and sophisticated systems to combat attack viruses. Should a human being touch and ingest some discharge from an infected host, the virus will gain physical entry, but the body, which it has entered, will not take things lying down. Defense systems in humans and other animals are equipped to detect that a rogue pretending to be RNA has entered the body and is trying to cheat the DNA to produce proteins for its own use. A virus tries to read the nucleic acid sequence in the DNA of any host that it finds. It then attempts to produce proteins of its own need and extract from the DNA it encounters (Heritage, Evans and Killington, 122). We should bear in mind that a virus is fundamentally an imposter in the garb of RNA. It tries to adjust its RNA sequence i n a manner such that the host DNA cannot see through the disguise. Higher forms of animal life have defense cells in blood. spend cells try to capture foreign virus-loaded tissue as soon as it enters the host. These cells are called macrophages and they contain most invasions by literally swallowing the foreign bodies.This mechanism is not necessarily comprehensive, and some particles of the foreign bodies may escape the macrophage confrontation. The sub-microscopic size of a virus means that a few members of an infectious line may escape the host bodys attention. Virus is then free to enter living cells of the host and start interaction with the DNA. The virus can tell instantly that it now has a different DNA structure. It starts studying the new nucleic acid sequence and sees it can replicate in the formd circumstances. It is now time for the lymphocytes in the host blood to take charge (Despopoulos and Silbernagl, 68)Lymphocytes are of two kinds, B and T. The latter speciali ze in chip viruses. They live the production of unusual proteins, and detect the viral infection of cells. T lymphocytes kill cells infected by a virus, in a stir to contain the infection. T lymphocytes are produced in the thymus. Healthy individuals have abundant capacity for defense and can ward off a majority of virus attacks.A compromise often prevails with the T lymphocytes winning the fight against a virus, though it is unable to destroy all traces of the virus in the host. Such a host then functions as a carrier, living with a low intensity of virus attack without external symptoms of any medical condition. A carrier can infect another individual who may succumb to the virus if its T lymphocyte system does not function well. Cancers of the lymphatic system and mal sustainment are the primary reason for a hosts T lymphocytes to pass in protecting a host from virus attack. We must bear in mind, for the question that has prompted this document, that a virus does not have t he luxury of choosing a host. It will take any available living cell and try to adjust to the DNA sequence it finds. temper favors the host the virus will generally fail to break the tag, or will perish with the host cell whose code it has broken.Immunity Though anti-retroviral therapy has now entered the realm of reality, nature provides hosts with the capability to recognize a virus and the will to destroy cells infected by viruses. Nature balances such powers by making viruses highly adaptable. They can quickly change their own sequences of acids in bids to escape detection and to survive. Viruses will also settle for sub-clinical situations in which they are able to survive without killing the host on which it depends. It follows that immunity is a key to fighting viruses. Higher forms of life are equipped with innate capabilities to fight viruses to the extent that the species can thrive, though some proportion of every population falls prey. Hygiene and balanced nutrition ar e the only things that most life forms need to defeat steal viruses.Works CitedDespopoulos, A and Silbernagl, S, Color Atlas of Physiology, Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart, 1991Heritage, J. G. V. Evans, and R. A. Killington, Introductory Microbiology, Cambridge University Press, 1996Lewin, B, Genes, Oxford University Press, 1997Watson, J. D. Nancy H. Hopkins, Jeffrey W. Roberts. Joan A. Steitz and Alan M. Weiner, Molecular biota of the Gene, The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. (1998)