The composition of a virus is relatively simple, and its size is extremely small. It cannot even properly be called an organism because it is unable to carry on life processes outside a living cell of an animal, plant, or bacteria. Yet its method of entering and “enslaving” a living cell is so ingenious that the virus is humankind’s deadliest enemy and resists the most advanced efforts of modern science to eliminate it.
Millions of people throughout the world suffer each year from viral diseases such as polio, measles, chicken pox, mumps, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and the common cold. Viruses also produce such illnesses as foot-and-mouth disease in livestock, distemper in dogs, panleukopenia in cats, and hog cholera. The viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages. (See also Disease, Human; Bacteria.)
Viruses are exceedingly small; they range in size from about 0.02 to 0.25 micron in diameter (1 micron = 0.000039 inch). By contrast, the smallest bacteria are about 0.4 micron in size. As observed with an electron microscope, some viruses are rod-shaped, others are roughly spherical, and still others have complex shapes consisting of a multisided “head” and a cylindrical “tail.” A virus consists of a core of nucleic acid surrounded by a protein coat called a capsid; some viruses also have an outer envelope composed of fatty materials and proteins. The nucleic-acid core is the essential part of the virus—it carries the virus’s genes. The core consists of either deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA), substances that are essential to the transmission of hereditary information (see Genetics, “Genes and the Genetic Code”). The protein capsid protects the nucleic acid and may contain molecules that enable the virus to enter the host cell—that is, the living cell infected by the virus.
Outside of a living cell, a virus is a dormant particle. It exhibits none of the characteristics generally associated with life—namely, reproduction and metabolic processes such as growth and assimilation of food (see Metabolism). Unlike bacteria and other microorganisms, viruses remain dormant in body fluids. Thus, great numbers of viruses may be present in a body and yet not produce a disease because they have not invaded the body’s cells. Once inside a host cell, however, the virus becomes an active entity capable of taking over the infected cell’s metabolic machinery. The cellular metabolism becomes so altered that it helps to produce thousands of new viruses.
The virus’s developmental cycle begins when it succeeds in introducing its nucleic acid, and in some cases its protein coat, into a host cell. Bacteriophages attach to the surface of the bacterium and then penetrate the rigid cell wall, transmitting the viral nucleic acid into the host. Animal viruses enter host cells by a process called endocytosis. Plant viruses enter through wounds in the cell’s outer coverings—through abrasions made by wind, for example, or through punctures made by insects.
Once inside the host cell, the virus’s genes usually direct the cell’s production of new viral protein and nucleic acid. These components are then assembled into new, complete, infective virus particles called virions, which are then discharged from the host cell to infect other cells.
In the case of bacteriophages, the new virions are usually released by bursting the host cell—a process called lysing, which kills the cell. Sometimes, however, bacteriophages form a stable association with the host cell. The virus’s genes are incorporated into the host cell’s genes, replicate as the cell’s genes replicate, and when the cell divides, the viral genes are passed on to the two new cells. (For details of cell division, see Cell.)
In such cases no virions are produced, and the infecting virus seems to disappear. Its genes, however, are passed on to each new generation of cells that stem from the original host cell. These cells remain healthy and continue to grow unless, as happens occasionally, something triggers the latent viral genes to become active. When this happens, the normal cycle of viral infection results: the viral genes direct viral replication, the host cell bursts, and the new virions are released. This pattern of infection is called lysogeny.
Closely related to lysogeny is the process known as transduction, whereby a virus carries bacterial genes from one host to another. This transduction process occurs when genes from the original host become incorporated into a virion that subsequently infects another bacterium.
Viral infections of plant and animal cells resemble those of bacterial cells in many ways. The release of new virions from plant and animal cells does not, however, always involve the bursting of the host cell as it does in bacteria. Particularly among animal viruses, the new virions may be released by budding off from the cell membrane, a process that does not necessarily kill the host cell.
In general, a viral infection produces one of four effects in a plant or animal cell: inapparent effect, in which the virus remains dormant in the host cell; cytopathic effect, in which the cell dies; hyperplastic effect, in which the cell is stimulated to divide before its death; and cell transformation, in which the cell is stimulated to divide, take on abnormal growth patterns, and become cancerous (see Cancer).
Viral infections in animals can be localized or can spread to various parts of the body. Some animal viruses produce latent infections: the virus remains dormant much of the time but becomes active periodically. This is the case with the herpes simplex viruses that cause cold sores and fever blisters.
Animals have a number of natural defenses that may be triggered by a viral infection. Fever is a general response; many viruses are inactivated at temperatures just slightly above the host’s normal body temperature. Another general response of infected animal cells is the secretion of a protein called interferon. Interferon inhibits the reproduction of viruses in noninfected cells. (See also Genetic Engineering.)
Fever and interferon production are general responses to infection by any virus. In addition, humans and other vertebrates can mount an immunological attack against a specific virus. The immune system produces antibodies and sensitized cells that are tailor-made to neutralize the infecting virus. These immune defenders circulate through the body long after the virus has been neutralized, thereby providing long-term protection against reinfection by that virus (see Immune System).
Such long-term immunity is the basis for active immunization against viral diseases. A weakened or inactivated strain of an infectious virus is introduced into the body. This virus does not provoke an active disease state, but it does stimulate the production of immune cells and antibodies, which then protect against subsequent infection by the virulent form of the virus.
Active immunizations are routine for such viral diseases as influenza, measles, mumps, poliomyelitis, and rubella. In contrast, passive immunization is the injection of antibodies from the serum of an individual who has already been exposed to the virus. Passive immunization is used to give short-term protection to individuals who have been exposed to such viral diseases as measles and hepatitis. It is useful only if provided soon after exposure, before the virus has become widely disseminated in the body (see Vaccines).
The treatment of an established viral infection usually is restricted to relieving specific symptoms. There are few drugs that can be used to combat a virus directly. The reason for this is that viruses use the machinery of living cells for reproduction. Consequently, drugs that inhibit viral development also inhibit the functions of the host cell. Nonetheless, a small number of antiviral drugs are available for specific infections.
The most successful controls over viral diseases are epidemiological. For example, large-scale active immunization programs can break the chain of transmission of a viral disease. Worldwide immunization is credited with the eradication of smallpox, once one of the most feared viral diseases. Because many viruses are carried from host to host by insects or contaminated food, insect control and hygienic food handling can help eliminate a virus from specific populations.
Historic descriptions of viral diseases date back as far as the 10th century bc. The concept of the virus, however, was not established until the last decade of the 19th century, when several researchers obtained evidence that agents far smaller than bacteria were capable of causing infectious diseases.
The existence of viruses was finally proved when bacteriophages were discovered by independent researchers in 1915 and 1917. The question of whether viruses are actually microorganisms (similar to very tiny bacteria) was resolved in 1935, when the virus responsible for causing mosaic disease in tobacco was isolated and crystallized; the fact that it could be crystallized proved that the virus was not a cellular organism.
Bacteriophages are a valuable research tool for molecular biologists. Studies of bacteriophages have helped to illuminate such basic biological processes as genetic recombination, nucleic-acid replication, and protein synthesis.