Viruses We Eat-病毒学概览.pdf

_ . : Lecture 4 Viruses We Eat R E V I E W In the last lecture, we discussed three viruses that enter the body via the respiratory tract: influenza, rhino, and measles. Each of these viruses has an RNA genome, and each uses its own RNA polymerase to make both viral messenger RNA and new viral genomes.This “all RNA” strategy of replication makes these viruses independent of the cellular DNA replication machinery, so epithelial cells which line the airways are fair game for infection, even if they are not proliferating. All three viruses are cytolytic, so they leave their host cells dead or dying once they have used them as factories to produce new viruses. The death of infected cells in the respiratory tract and the accompanying inflammation triggers coughs and sneezes, and microdroplets containing virus particles are expelled into the surroundings where they can be inhaled by other individuals to spread the infection. The rhinovirus genome is protected by a protein capsid which is assembled within the infected cell. In contrast, influenza and measles virus genomes associate with virus-encoded proteins and then pick up an “envelope”made from patches of cell membrane as they exit.Because of the different ways these viruses “dress,” measles and influenza viruses can infect cells deep in the airways where the temperature is 98.6° F. In contrast, the rhinovirus capsid is relatively unstable at this core body temperature, so rhinovirus prefer- entially infects the upper regions of the respiratory tract where it is cooler. One consequence of this subtle difference in temperatu