Virus

“Chickenpox is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), chickenpox used to be a common illness among kids under the age of 12 (The Nemours Foundation, 2014).” An itchy rash of macules, papules, vesicles, pustules, and scabs appears with chickenpox, all stages are present on the body at the same time. “The incubation period is the time between the invasion by the pathogen and the onset of clinical manifestations, the incubation period for chickenpox is 2-3 weeks (Leifer, 2011).” An infected…

alive by themselves. They require a host cell. Viruses can only replicate inside the living cells of an organism. The virus takes over the cell’s machinery to carry out its own life processes to help it multiply and replicate. The infected cell will produce viral particles instead of the usual products. One of the most recognized and studied is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).…

cruise ship outbreaks although these outbreaks account for less than 1% of all outbreaks worldwide (5). The symptoms and illness associated with Norovirus infections is often referred to as ‘stomach flu’, despite little resemblance to the influenza virus. Noroviruses are responsible for 21 million infections and over 70,000 hospitalizations annually in the USA, and account for 10-15% of severe cases of gastroenteritis in children less than 5 years old (6). In…

Flu Virus The flu is a common viral infection that can be deadly. The flu attacks the lungs, nose, and throat. The ones that are at high risk are young children under 5, and especially those under 2. Adults older than 65. Pregnant women and up to 2 weeks postpartum. Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. And those with chronic disease or weak immune systems are at high risk. Most flu outbreaks happen in late fall and winter. Symptoms may not start for a few days and you…

Epstein-Barr Virus is part of the herpesvirus family and was the first virus discovered to cause a human cancer. The virus has two stages of its life, the latent phase, which allows the virus to lie dormant within a cell and the host. The other stage is the lytic phase in which the virus reproduces and allows the virus to spread among cells. Haloperidol (HPD) aids in the initiation of the lytic cycle. The Haloperidol will be administered at varying concentrations and exposure times. Using…

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a very common virus that can cause mild cold-like symptoms in adults and older healthy children. This virus causes serious respiratory problems in infants, especially those infants which are born prematurely, who have diseases of the heart or lung, or those who are immunocompromised. The virus can live for a half an hour or more on hands and live for up to five hours on countertops or for several hours on used tissues. An RSV infection begins with the…

presence of the virus is the production of antibodies. Antibodies bind to the viruses proteins, also known as antigens, to try to remove them. The Y shape of the antibodies allows them to bind to antigens on cells with the two arm like structures and bind to Fc receptors on certain cells with the bottom part of the Y. This binding forms infectious virus-antibody complexes which enable the virus to now spread to cells with Fc receptors that might not have the specific receptor to the virus…

Influenza virus The Influenza virus has a unique background and history as it was discovered in the early 1900’s. Humans and animals are affected by influenza. Therefore, Influenza is characterized by how it is transmitted, its symptoms and treatments, and the impact it has on the populations in which it has spread to. The transmission of the Influenza virus is unique in that it is not just a virus that humans get and it is hard to contain because both animals and humans spread the virus into…

We have recently published DeNovo, a prototype model for predicting virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPIs). All previous research was focused around predicting HIV-human interactions for lack of data for the other viruses. DeNovo is the first model to allow predicting the interactions between human and any virus, even if that virus has no known interactions with human. In DeNovo-II, the output of this deliverable, we developed the prototype DeNovo to a full working prediction model…

money also becomes a critical factor for governments when handling an epidemic. With these hot virus outbreaks, time is the determining component for the amount of research that can be accomplished. Approaching a Hot Virus As time goes on, the world’s technology…