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Corona Virus: Q1: Coronavirus Life Cycle

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can infect both animals and humans. In animals, they cause a variety of diseases in livestock like pigs and cows that can lead to economic losses. In humans, they typically only cause mild respiratory infections but some variants like SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV can cause severe illness. The key differences are that animal coronaviruses tend to cause more severe gastrointestinal disease in young animals while human coronaviruses usually cause milder respiratory symptoms, though the elderly and immunocompromised are at higher risk of worse outcomes. Diagnosis is via RT-PCR testing and treatment is limited as vaccines have only been developed for some animal viruses. Controlling outbreaks relies on public

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Tufail Khan
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66 views

Corona Virus: Q1: Coronavirus Life Cycle

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can infect both animals and humans. In animals, they cause a variety of diseases in livestock like pigs and cows that can lead to economic losses. In humans, they typically only cause mild respiratory infections but some variants like SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV can cause severe illness. The key differences are that animal coronaviruses tend to cause more severe gastrointestinal disease in young animals while human coronaviruses usually cause milder respiratory symptoms, though the elderly and immunocompromised are at higher risk of worse outcomes. Diagnosis is via RT-PCR testing and treatment is limited as vaccines have only been developed for some animal viruses. Controlling outbreaks relies on public

Uploaded by

Tufail Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CORONA VIRUS 

Coronavirus, any virus belonging to the family Coronaviridae.


Coronaviruses have enveloped virions (virus particles) that measure
approximately 120 nm (1 nm = 10−9 meter) in diameter. Club-shaped
glycoprotein spikes in the envelope give the viruses a crownlike, or coronal,
appearance. The nucleocapsid, made up of a protein shell known as a
capsid and containing the viral nucleic acids, is helical or tubular. The
coronavirus genome consists of a single strand of positive-sense RNA
(ribonucleic acid).

QUESTIONS :
Q1: CoronaVirus Life Cycle 

The virion is an enveloped particle surrounded by a protein shell. This shell,


called a capsid, is made up of spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and
nucleocapsid (N) proteins, containing the single-stranded RNA genome.
This RNA molecule is 28 to 32 kilobases (kb) in length and a "plus-strand
RNA" with positive polarity, which means that it can be translated directly
into protein. The S, E, M, and N proteins are all structural proteins. The
spike proteins on the capsid give coronaviruses their distinctive “crown” or
“solar corona” appearance under electron microscopy. They are crucial in
determining cell tropism (which type of host tissue can be infected) and
host species specificity (which host species can be infected). 

1.Host Cell Recognition 

For virion replication to begin, the spike proteins first bind to specific host
cell surface receptors that are embedded in the host cell membrane - a
process called host cell recognition 
In the case of SARS-CoV, this receptor is angiotensin-converting enzyme 2
(ACE2). ACE2 is a regular cellular protein that happens to be used by the
virus to gain entry to the cell. It has been confirmed that the new
coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 also binds to ACE-2 and structurally resembles
SARS-CoV.
Once the binding between the spike protein and the receptor is complete,
the virion enters the cell through one of two processes. 

Membrane Fusion 

membrane fusion from without where viral and cellular membranes fuse
and the RNA genome of the virus gets access to the cytosol. endocytosis
where the receptor-bound virus is enveloped by the cell membrane and
enters the cytosol within a vesicle. 
Uncoating Of RNA 
Following either route of cell entry, the viral RNA genome is released into
the cytoplasm which is followed by uncoating of the RNA

Replicase Gene

Once in the host cytoplasm, a replicase gene on the RNA strand is


translated into two replicase polyproteins

Translation 

Translation is the production of proteins from RNA, and a polyprotein is a


large protein that can be cleaved into smaller proteins. The polyproteins are
further processed by viral proteinases (enzymes that break down proteins)
to yield individual replicase proteins. 

Production of RNA

These replicate’s mediate the production of full-length negative-strand


RNA, which later serves as a template for positive-strand virion genomic
RNA 

Coding For Structural Proteins

These shorter mRNAs code for the structural proteins (e.g., S, E, M, and N)
and nonstructural accessory proteins, including the viral proteinases, during
translation.
 Translocation

The newly produced plus-strand viral genomic RNA as well as


nonstructural and structural proteins are translocated.
to assembly sites at a transitional zone between the endoplasmic reticulum
(ER) and the Golgi apparatus. The Golgi apparatus and the ER are both
organelles involved in protein synthesis, post-translational modification of
proteins, protein packaging into membrane-bound vesicles, and protein
transport. 

Maturation 

Here the new virions assemble, start maturing, and bud off from the Golgi
membranes as vesicles. These vesicles are translocated to the host cell
membrane. where they fuse with the host cell membrane and are released
into extracellular space.

Exocytosis

This release process does not rupture the host cell and is called nonlytic
exocytosis

QUESTION 2
Why it's so hard to design vaccines for coronavirus 

To begin with, viruses mutate very quickly. Made up of ribonucleic acid


(RNA), as this genetic material exists on a single strand, unlike a double-
stranded DNA, it easily gets cut up and remixed once broken. This enables
viruses to mutate quickly, meaning that any cures or vaccines made for a
specific RNA may quickly become obsolete. 

Although vaccines have worked well in thwarting certain versions of


viruses- the recurrence of polio in some countries thanks to a new mutated
version immune to previous vaccines is a good example of how difficult it is
to thwart viruses even once a vaccine has been made.
More than this, vaccines generally take many years to reach the market as
they must go through six developmental steps including a three-phase
clinical development stage. This means that, by the time an effective
vaccine has been developed and approved as safe-to-use, the emergency
may have blown over. Alternatively, if urgency declines to develop a
vaccine as infection rates diminish thanks to other factors, research on the
vaccine is likely to stall and become neglected, as what happened with the
SARS vaccine.

QUESTION 3
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANIMALS AND HUMANS CORONAVIRUS 

ANIMALS CORONAVIRUS 
Coronaviruses cause a large variety of diseases in animals, and their ability
to cause severe disease in livestock and companion animals such as pigs,
cows, chickens, dogs, and cats led to significant research on these viruses
in the last half of the twentieth century. For instance, Transmissible
Gastroenteritis Virus (TGEV) and Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV)
cause severe gastroenteritis in young piglets, leading to significant
morbidity, mortality, and ultimately economic losses. PEDV recently
emerged in North America for the first time, causing significant losses of
young piglets. Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV)
mostly leads to enteric infection but has the ability to infect the nervous
system, causing encephalitis, vomiting, and wasting in pigs. Feline enteric
coronavirus (FCoV) causes a mild or asymptomatic infection in domestic
cats, but during persistent infection, mutation transforms the virus into a
highly virulent strain of FCoV, Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus (FIPV), that
leads to development of a lethal disease called feline infectious peritonitis
(FIP). FIP has wet and dry forms, with similarities to the human disease,
sarcoidosis. FIPV is macrophage tropic and it is believed that it causes
aberrant cytokine and/or chemokine expression and lymphocyte depletion,
resulting in lethal disease.

HUMAN CORONAVIRUS 

Prior to the SARS-CoV outbreak, coronaviruses were only thought to cause


mild, self-limiting respiratory infections in humans. Two of these human
coronaviruses are α-coronaviruses, HCoV-229E and HCoV-NL63, while the
other two are β-coronaviruses, HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1.

These viruses are endemic in the human populations, causing 15–30 % of


respiratory tract infections each year. They cause more severe disease in
neonates, the elderly, and in individuals with underlying illnesses, with a
greater incidence of lower respiratory tract infection in these populations.
HCoV-NL63 is also associated with acute laryngotracheitis (croup).

TREATMENT AND DIAGNOSIS 

In most cases of self-limited infection, diagnosis of coronaviruses is


unnecessary, as the disease will naturally run its course. However, it may
be important in certain clinical and veterinary settings or in epidemiological
studies to identify an etiological agent. Diagnosis is also important in
locations where a severe CoV outbreak is occurring, such as, at present, in
the Middle East, where MERS-CoV continues to circulate. The identification
of cases will guide the development of public health measures to control
outbreaks. It is also important to diagnose cases of severe veterinary CoV-
induced disease, such as PEDV and IBV, to control these pathogens and
protect food supplies. RT-PCR has become the method of choice for
diagnosis of human CoV, as multiplex real-time RT-PCR assays have been
developed, are able to detect all four respiratory HCoVs and could be
further adapted to novel CoVs. Serologic assays are important in cases
where RNA is difficult to isolate or is no longer present, and for
epidemiological studies.
Only limited options are available to prevent coronavirus infections.
Vaccines have only been approved for IBV, TGEV, and Canine CoV, but
these vaccines are not always used because they are either not very
effective, or in some cases have been reported to be involved in the
selection of novel pathogenic CoV via recombination of circulating strains.
Vaccines for veterinary pathogens, such as PEDV, may be useful in such
cases where spread of the virus to a new location could lead to severe
losses of veterinary animals. In the case of SARS-CoV, several potential
vaccines have been developed but none are yet approved for use. These
vaccines include recombinant attenuated viruses, live virus vectors, or
individual viral proteins expressed from DNA plasmids. Therapeutic SARS-
CoV neutralizing antibodies have been generated and could be retrieved
and used again in the event of another SARS-CoV outbreak. Such
antibodies would be most useful for protecting healthcare workers.
Owing to the lack of effective therapeutics or vaccines, the best 
measures to control human coronaviruses remain a strong public health
surveillance system coupled with rapid diagnostic testing and quarantine
when necessary. For international outbreaks, co-operation of governmental
entities, public health authorities, and 
Health care providers are critical. During veterinary outbreaks that 
are readily transmitted, such as PEDV, more drastic measures such as
destruction of entire herds of pigs may be necessary to prevent 
transmission of these deadly viruses.

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