BIOLOGY

INVESTIGATORY

PROJECT

“VIRAL DISEASES”
JASEEM HANEEFA

XII -B
LIST OF CONTENTS:
Aim
Introduction
Viral Infections
Viral Diseases
About the viral diseases
Clinical Characteristics
Treatment
Bibliography
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank

my teacher: Mr JINO MANGALAM, Whose
unstinted support, guidance & encouragements
have enabled me to do the project. I would also
like to thank my parents and my beloved
friends for their helping and finalise these
project within time
AIM:
To study about some of the
common viral diseases.
 INTRODUCTION
A virus, in the words of one eminent scientist, can be
thought of as
"a piece of bad news wrapped in protein." Unlike
bacteria and fungi, viruses are not living organisms;
rather, they consist in essence of a length of nucleic
acid-their genetic material-that is surrounded
and protected by a protein coat. (Some viruses have, in
addition to this
coat, a soft outer envelope, which confers some special
properties.)The
genetic material of viruses is composed of one type of
nucleic acid,
which may be either ribonucleic acid (RNA) or
deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA).Viruses carry out no independent metabolism:
they do not
respire, they do not process nutrients, they do not
generate waste
products, and they rely on living cells of the host for their
reproduction. A virus outside a cell is an inert bit of
particulate matter;
once inside, however, the virus seizes command of the
cell's
biosynthetic machinery, converting the cell into a "high-
tech" factory
for the production of new virus particles. Many viruses
eventually kill
their host cells, resulting in disease and provoking an
assault by the
immune response of the host. Sometimes, this response
goes away, so
that the harmful effects of the immune response are
actually more
serious than those of the viral disease itself other viruses
provoke little,
if any, reaction, and some can remain dormant, or latent, in
the host for
years. The vast majority of all virus infections appear to
be
asymptomatic in nature that is, the infections are so mild
and the host
response so effective that clinical signs of disease never
develop.
 VIRUS – An Introduction

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside

the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms,
from animals and plants
to bacteria and Achaea. Virus particles (known as virions) consist
of two or three parts: the genetic material made from either DNA
or RNA, long molecules that carry genetic information; a protein
coat that protects these genes; and in some cases an envelope
of lipids that surrounds the protein coat when they are outside a
cell. The shapes of viruses range from simple helical and
icosahedra forms to more complex structures. The average virus
is about one one-hundredth the size of the average bacterium.
Most viruses are too small to be seen directly with alight
microscope. Viruses spread in many ways; viruses in plants are
often transmitted from plant to plant by insects that feed on the
sap of plants, such as aphids; viruses in animals can be carried
by blood-sucking insects. These disease-bearing organisms are
known as vectors. Influenza viruses are spread by coughing and
sneezing. Norovirus and rotavirus, common causes of viral
gastroenteritis, are transmitted by the faecal-oral route and are
passed from person to person by contact, entering the body in
food or water. HIV is one of several viruses transmitted through
sexual contact and by exposure to infected blood. The range of
host cells that a virus can infect is called its "host range". This
can be narrow or, as when a virus is capable of infecting many
species, broad. Viral infections in animals provoke an immune
response that usually eliminates the infecting virus. Immune
responses can also be produced by vaccines, which confer an
artificially acquired immunity to the specific viral infection.
However, some viruses including those causing AIDS and viral
hepatitis evade these immune responses and result in chronic
infections. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but several
antiviral drugs have been developed.
 VIRAL INFECTIONS
Viruses are microscopic pathogens, just a fraction of the size of
a bacterium, that consist simply of genetic material (DNA or
RNA) and a container. Because they cannot replicate on their
own, viruses invade host cells, commandeering the machinery
needed for normal cell function. A large number of zoonotic
illnesses (diseases that pass from animals to humans) are
caused by viruses, including rabies, Ebola, and recently
emerging diseases such as avian influenza and the H1N1³ swine
´ flu.

Illness from viral infections can be prevented with vaccines,

which prime the immune system to attack and clear invading
pathogens; however, many viruses mutate rapidly, resulting in
new strains that the immune system no longer recognizes.
Viruses also have the ability to remain dormant within a host
cell. During these times, the immune system is unable to
recognize and destroy the invading pathogen.

Structural characteristics -

Basic structural characteristics, such as genome type, virion

shape and replication site, generally share the same features
among virus species within the same family. There are currently
21 families of viruses known to cause disease in humans.

There are five double stranded DNA families: three are non-
enveloped (Adenoviruses, Parvovirus and Polyomavirus) and
two are enveloped (Herpes virus and Poxvirus).

There is one family of single stranded DNA viruses that

infect humans: the Parvoviridae.
There are two additional viruses (Hepatitis D and Hepatitis E)
which have not yet been assigned to a family but are clearly
distinct from the other families infecting humans.
 SOME VIRAL DISEASES
Viral diseases are extremely widespread infections
caused by viruses, a type of microorganism. There are
many types of viruses that cause a wide variety of viral
diseases. The most common type of viral disease is the
common cold, which is caused by a viral infection of the
upper respiratory tract (nose and throat). Other common
viral diseases include:-

Chickenpox
Flu (influenza)
Herpes
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS)
Human papillomavirus (HPV)
Infectious mononucleosis
Mumps, measles and rubella
Shingles
Viral gastroenteritis (stomach flu)
Viral hepatitis
Viral meningitis
Viral pneumonia
 ABOUT THE VIRAL DISEASES

Viral diseases are contagious and spread from person to person when a
virus enters the body and begins to multiply. Common ways that viruses
spread from person to person include:

1. Breathing in air-borne droplets contaminated with a virus.

2. Eating food or drinking water contaminated with a virus.

3. Having sexual contact with a person who is infected with a sexually

transmitted virus.

4. Indirect transmission from person to person by a virus host, such as a

mosquito, tick, or field mouse.

5. Touching surfaces or body fluids contaminated with a virus.

In some cases, viral diseases can lead to serious, possibly life-threatening

complications, such as dehydration, bacterial pneumonia, and other
secondary bacterial infections. People at risk
for complications include those who have a chronic disease or a suppressed
or compromised immune system, and the very young and very old. In
addition, certain types of sexually transmitted viral infections, such as
HIV/AIDS and HPV, can lead to serious complications and death.

Seek prompt medical care if you think you have a viral disease, especially
if you are at risk for complications, or if you believe you have been
exposed to a sexually transmitted disease.
Seek immediate medical care if you, or someone you are with, have
serious symptoms of an illness or a viral disease, such as shortness of
breath, chest pain, passing out(fainting), or a change in alertness or
consciousness.
 CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The clinical characteristics of viruses may differ substantially

among species within the same family:
 TREATMENT

1.Prevention of Human Rhinovirus

infections-
Human rhinovirus (HRV) causes over 80% of the common cold in
the fall. Developing vaccines against HRV is unfeasible because
HRVs have at least 115 antigenically distinct serotypes. One of
the proven methods to prevent and inhibit viral infections is to
block host cell receptors that are used by viruses to gain cell
entry. Receptor blockage is commonly achieved via application of
MAbs that bind to specific epitopes on the receptor molecules. A
plethora of invitro studies have reported effective viral inhibition
by receptor-blocking MAbs. However, these works have not
yielded yet any approved drug on the markers.

High avidity is achieved by multivalency. To improve avidity of

HRV receptor blocking antibody, a novel tetravalent recombinant
antibody, CFY196, has been generated against I CAM-1.CFY196 is
composed of Fab fragment of a humanized version of MAb 1A6
fused with a linker derived from human immunoglobulin D (IgD)
hinge and a tetramerization domain derived from the coiled-coil
sequence of human transcription factor ATFα.CFY196 is expressed
in bacteria and purified as a homogenous tetrameric molecular
complex. CFY196exhibited almost two-orders-of-magnitude
improvement in functional affinity compared with its bivalent
counterpart based on the kinetic parameters measured by
BIAcore analysis. Such kinetic improvement also directly leads to
functional superiorities of CFY196. In invitro assays, CFY196
consistently and significantly outpaced the best commercial anti-
ICAM-1 MAbs in preventing HRV infection as measured by
reduction of cytopathic effects and HRV viral titers. The preclinical
findings
of CFY196 bode well its efficacy in human since MAb 1A6, from
which CFY196 is derived, has already exhibited positive effects
in a human trial. Moreover, to prevent possible immunogenicity,
CFY196 is humanized.
2. Biochemical Prevention and Treatment
via targeting on viral mRNA-
Targeting viral mRNA is one of the most active areas of research
and development. Several strategies have emerged over the
years and are being tested pre-clinically and clinically. They
include: antisense-oligonucleotides (AS-ONs), ribozymes, and
recently, RNA interference (RNAi). All these strategies share the
features of conceptual simplicity, straightforward drug design and
quick route to identify drug leads. However, the challenges have
been to improve potency, pharmacokinetics and, most
importantly, intracellular delivery of the drug candidates. As the
oldest strategy, AS-ON technology has produced to date one drug
in the market place, Vitravene. A number of clinical trials of drug
candidates from these technologies are currently ongoing.
Antisense-oligonucleotides

Antisense-oligonucleotides (AS-ONs) are short synthetic

oligonucleotides that form complementary pair with specific viral
mRNA targets. AS-ONs inhibit viral protein production by both
blocking viral mRNA translation and triggering its degradation.
Since the discovery of viral inhibition effect of AS-ONs by
Zamecnik and Stephenson in 1978, antisense technology has
been developed as a powerful tool for target validation and
therapeutic purposes. Vitravene is the first AS-ON based drug
approved by FDA. Vitravene, or fomivirsen sodium, is a 21-base
phosphorothioateoligodeoxynucleotide complementary to the
messenger RNA of the major immediate-early region proteins of
human cytomegalovirus, and is a potent and selective antiviral
agent for cytomegalovirus retinitis, a herpes-like eye disease that
afflicts the immune-suppressed.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• www.scribd.com
• www.google.com
• Biology Text class XII (NCERT