Viruses

[flano]

How do viruses ,represented as genes, invade cell to produce replicas of themselves?

Thank you

[Calvesy]

They are surrounded by a protein coat that can unlock a cell membrane to inject a RNA snippet.

This then usurps the normal protein factories in the nucleus, forcing the hijacked cell to build thousands of replicas of the complete virus. When the cell dies, these escape to infect further cells in a chain reaction until antibody production catches up and jams the keys on the viruses' coats.

[flano]

nice one calvesy

[marmaduke]

But how can these viruses be so powerful? Why can they cause such havoc on the cells that let them in? Why don't they stop them?

[Clare A]

As Calvesy said, they can reproduce so quickly that they can overwhelm the host's immune system before it knows what'* *** it. Viruses can also 'fool' the body's cells into accepting them, by replicating the host's cells closely. Simple, but clever organisms are viruses. They are weedy, too, but the things that kill them (bleach, disinfectant) are also harmful to their hosts!

[Clare A]

Oh dear! Automod strikes again. I typed 'what'* *** it', and automod thinks I'm being rude!

[Clare A]

Good grief! 'What has hit it'!

[AB Editor]

Dear Clare

If you look carefully at what the deleted letters are you will realise that they would under normal circumstances be deleted from the system. The system is non discriminating even when it comes to an apostrophe.

Regards