Flu virus has ‘coat’ which melts in the summer and makes it less virulent
(Photo credit: Flu viruses among cilia - National Geographic magazine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)
US scientists have discovered a possible reason why the flu virus is seasonal and tends to infect people mostly in the winter. It has a jacket that melts in the summer causing the virus to die off, and stays hard in the winter, until it enters a host where it melts and gets to work. The discovery could lead to new ways to prevent and treat the flu.
Neuroscientist Joshua Zimmerberg and colleagues, based at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics (LCMB) in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in Bethesda, Maryland have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging to examine the outer structure of the flu virus and other respiratory viruses.
The coats are made of a fatty protein called hemagglutinin that hardens in cold conditions. When the virus enters a warm host, the hemagglutinin coat melts, and the virus gets to work infecting cells. Hemagglutinin also helps the virus to bind to the target cell of its host, so the virus can fuse with it and allow its contents to invade the host cell.
During the summer, when the ambient temperature is much higher, the hemagglutinin coat is not able to stay hard and protect the virus, which is more likely to die before it can infect people.
The jacket does not get hard all at once, Zimmerberg said they observed that it solidifies slowly, from 40 degrees Celsius (104 deg F) down to 4 degrees C (39 deg F). He said he and his colleagues believed this was how the virus managed to stay alive over a range of temperatures.
The researchers suggested that in winter it may even be harder to wash the virus off your hands because in the cold its hard shell protects it against soap and detergents.
For further information, please click on
http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nchembio.77.html
Elaine Warburton www.geneticsandhealth.com
Tags: Evolution, Flu, Genetic adaptations, Genetic Ingenuity, Genetics of Disease, infectious diseases, Pharmacogenomics, Pharmaocogenetics, Vaccines, VirusesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Evolution, Flu, General Genetics and Health, Genetic Ingenuity, Genetic adaptations, Genetics of Disease, Pharmacogenetics, Vaccines, Viruses, infectious diseases
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