Have to recognize a specific host cellular receptor for entry during infection. Host receptor binding is the initial step of virus life cycle and could be an effective target for preventing virus infection. Based on the atomic structure of animal viruses, it was found that the receptor recognition site is located in an area surrounded by hyper-variable regions of the antigenic sites.

If a given preparation of viral particles were to be assayed by all of the methods described above, the “titer” would be different in every case. For example, an influenza virus suspension does a breathalyzer detect weed may provide the data set out in Table 3-3. The difference between the electron microscope and hemagglutination titers reflects merely the difference in sensitivity between the two assays.

Variations in the appearance of inclusion material depend on the tissue fixative and stain used. “Packaging sequences” on viral nucleic acid are involved in assembly into virus particles. There are size constraints on the nucleic acid molecules that can be packaged into a given icosahedral capsid. Icosahedral capsids are formed independently of nucleic acid.

Commonly used procedures are those introduced by Reed and Muench, and Karber, details of which can be found in laboratory manuals. Newly synthesized intracellular viral antigen can be detected by staining the fixed cell monolayer with specific antiviral antibody which has been labeled with a fluorescent dye, or with an enzyme such as peroxidase. Full details of these techniques are given in Chapter 13.

Viral genomic RNA is generally duplicated in the cell cytoplasm, although there are exceptions. Unlike bacteria, many of which can be grown on an artificial nutrient medium, viruses require a living host cell for replication. Infected host cells can be cultured and grown, and then the growth medium can be harvested as a source of virus. Virions in the liquid medium can be separated from the host cells by either centrifugation or filtration. Filters can physically remove anything present in the solution that is larger than the virions; the viruses can then be collected in the filtrate . Most, if not all, viruses generate defective genomes, and, consequently, defective particles during their multiplication.

Cytopathic effects of the virus altered the characteristics of her cells in a process called transformation, which gives the cells the ability to divide continuously. This ability, of course, resulted in a cancerous tumor that eventually killed Mrs. Lacks in October at age 31. Before her death, samples of her cancerous cells were taken without her knowledge or permission. The samples eventually ended up in the possession of Dr. George Gey, a biomedical researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Gey was able to grow some of the cells from Lacks’s sample, creating what is known today as the immortal HeLa cell line. These cells have the ability to live and grow indefinitely and, even today, are still widely used in many areas of research.

Classification of viruses based on the genome structure. The growth curve of bacteriophage populations is a one-step multiplication curve and not a sigmoidal curve, as compared to the bacterial growth curve. In August 2014, two infected US aid workers and a Spanish priest were treated with ZMapp, an unregistered drug that had been tested in monkeys but not in humans.

Embryonated bird eggs b.live lab animals c. All of the choices will support viral cultivation. Some viruses carry protein enzymes inside the virions. At the extreme in this respect are the poxviruses, the cores of which contain a transcriptional system; many different enzymes are packaged in poxvirus particles. Furthermore, fertilized hen eggs can be infected after several days of incubation .