BSC 438 Influenza Lecture

Why are people who are 65 and older less likely to get sick from the flu?

they are less likely to be out interacting and will likely have antibodies and their flu shot

Who is most likely to get sick from the flu?

children

Who is most risk of having complications with the flu?

people 65 years and older due to changes in their immune defenses due to age

What are capsid proteins encoded by?

the viral genome

Viral envelope

modified lipid bilayer from the host’s cell membrane

Positive sense ssRNA

viral RNA can be translated immediately into proteins

Negative sense viral RNA

Complementary to mRNA, and so must be transcribed into positive sense by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase before translation

Orthomyxovirus

a family of RNA viruses that includes five genera: influenzavirus A, influenzavirus B, influenzavirus C, Isavirus, and Thogotovirus

What kind of virus is an influenza virus?

an orthomyxovirus

roughly spherical virus, 200 nm diameter

genome composed of 8 segment of (-) ssRNA

all type A strains can also infect birds

What kind of sense is Influenza?

negative sense

Why is influenza being negative sense important?

RNA dependent RNA polymerase is prone to making mistakes, which tends to cause many more mutations and thus antigenic shift

Where does each RNA polymerase come from?

It comes from each of the 8 segments