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Essay On Influenza Replicates In The Human Body

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How influenza replicates in the human body Influenza, commonly called the fu, is a viral infection that attacks the respiratory system. 5 to 20 percent of Americans will be infected by the flu virus every year, causing about 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths (Colds/Flu, National center for complementary and integrative health, nccih.nih.gov). The influenza virus enters the cell, injects its nucleic acid, transcribes the RNA, assembles the new virion, and begins lysis of the cell. Influenza begins its cycle by entering the host cell. Influenza has specifically evolved to enter a cell without alerting any immune system cells. To enter the cell, the virus will make use of attachment proteins. Attachment proteins are vital for …show more content…

This acidic environment will enable the virus to open its matrix 2 ion channels. Once the ion channels are opened, the newfound acidity will trigger the release of vRNP into the host cell's cytoplasm. The viral capsid acts as the barrier between the world and the most important part of the virus, the nucleic acid. The viral capsid is composed of matrix protein M1 (Virus Structure, fsu.edu) that holds everything together and plays a role in virus assembly. The viral capsid is the backbone of the virus that holds everything together and has three main functions: to protect the nucleic acid from digestion by enzymes, to hold the attachment proteins needed to enter cells, and it provides special sites on the surface that allow the virus to attach to cells. Inside the viral capsid is the RNA (ribonucleic acid), this acid is the set of instructions that code for every single action the virus takes. RNA is made of: cytosine, adenine, guanine, and uracil. Each of these are nucleotides that pair up with other specific nucleotides to do a certain job, e.g. cytosine goes with guanine while adenine goes with uracil (complementary base pairing, wisc.edu). RNA has eight segments that code for proteins, some of the proteins that the influenza A virus codes for are: PB1, PB2, PB1-F2, PA, HA, NP, NA, MI,

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