A virus is a microscopic infectious agent that can reproduce only inside a host cell. Viruses infect all types of organisms: from animals and plants, to bacteria and archaea. Since the initial discovery of tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 5,000 types of virus have been described in detail, although most types of virus remain undiscovered. Viruses are ubiquitous, as they are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth, and are the most abundant type of biological entity on the planet. The study of viruses is known as virology, and is a branch of microbiology.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have mapped a crucial part of the Nipah virus, a deadly bat-borne infection that has been responsible for human outbreaks every year since its discovery in 1999.
In a recent study, researchers from Uppsala University show that the Semliki Forest virus enters the central nervous system by first entering the cerebrospinal fluid and then binding to a specific cell type before penetrating deeper into the brain.
Researchers from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute reported in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections that one of the first strains of bird flu to be isolated from a human in Texas exhibits a distinct set of mutations that allow it to more readily replicate in human cells and inflict more severe disease in mice than a strain found in dairy cattle.
Researchers have identified a novel genetic risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection, providing new insights into the virus' ability to invade human cells. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that spreads COVID-19.
Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the Singapore General Hospital have discovered that T cells-white blood cells that can destroy harmful pathogens-can completely prevent viral infection, to an extent previously thought only possible due to neutralizing antibodies.
For more than ten years, researchers have been investigating the microbiome, the ecosystem of microorganisms that inhabit the body, and its impact on health and disease.
Recycling takes place in our cells at all times: in a process called autophagy, cell components that are no longer needed are enclosed by membranes and broken down into their basic building blocks.
A research team from the University of California, Irvine has revealed a previously unknown mechanism that triggers an inflammatory immune response in cells when their DNA is damaged.
Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans - including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis.
Ebola is a fatal hemorrhagic disease caused by a virus that is found in parts of East-Central and West Africa. Most individuals are aware that the major mode of person-to-person transmission is through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.
In the continual arms race between parasites and their hosts, innovation was thought to be the key to a successful attack or defense that one-ups the competition.
Signals relayed to motor neurons from the brain enable muscle movement, but these signals typically pass through spinal interneurons before they reach their destination. How the brain and this highly diverse group of "switchboard operator" cells are connected is poorly understood.
Scientists have uncovered a new role for a cell's own RNA in fending off attacks by RNA viruses. Some of the cell's RNA molecules, researchers found, help regulate antiviral signaling. These signals are part of the intricate coordination of immune responses against virus invasion.
Julie Thomy, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) and Department of Oceanography in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)
To fight the virus that causes influenza, one of the avenues being explored by scientists is the development of drugs capable of destabilizing its genome, made up of eight RNA molecules.
Scientists are literally shining a laser on the energy centers of cancer cells in an attempt to harm these sources of power and cause widespread cancer cell death.
The TIME is a dynamic network composed of cancer cells, immune cells, and stromal components. During the early stages of tumorigenesis, the TIME attempts to eliminate abnormal cells through immune surveillance.
A new venture, Oxitec Australia, is taking on two of the deadliest virus-carrying mosquitos in the Pacific region – Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus – to fight the spread of diseases like dengue, Zika, and yellow fever, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives globally each year.
Protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells found in plants, animals, and fungi involves more than just the straightforward ribosome assembly of amino acids.
Avian influenza viruses typically require several mutations to adapt and spread among humans, but what happens when just one change can increase the risk of becoming a pandemic virus?
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