Microbiology: Influenza Viruses Research Paper

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The defining characteristics of the pathogen

Influenza virus is an enveloped orthomyxovirus that is spherical or filamentous in shape. The pathogen has a single-stranded antisense RNA genome, and its diameter ranges between 80-120nm (Dawson, Lazniewski, and Plewczynski 2017). Influenza microbe variants are Influenzavirus A, Influenzavirus B, and Influenzavirus C, all pathogenic to man. The virus’s genome is contained in a helical-shaped nucleocapsid surrounded by a lipid envelope. The influenza viruses are typically known to cause acute respiratory infections such as sore throat, nonproductive cough, fever, and malaise.

The pathogenesis of the pathogen

Inhaled viral particles reach the lower segment of the respiratory tract, the primary site where they initiate the disease pathogenesis. The virus uses the HA spikes on its envelope to attach to the sialic acid receptors on the epithelial cells (Zost et al. 2019). Mucociliary transport may help transport the virus to the other respiration sites (Adivitiya et al. 2021). Infection of the mucosal cell causes cell destruction and its desquamation.

The virulence factors used by the pathogen

The major virulence factors in the Influenza virus are hemagglutinin (HA) spike proteins and neuraminidase. The neuraminidase in the viral envelope may act on mucus to cause liquefaction (Suhasini 2017). The HA spike proteins assist the virus in attaching to the lower respiratory tract epithelium. It also helps in releasing the viral genome into the epithelial cell’s cytoplasms through membrane fusion, thus initiating the respiratory infection.

The treatment for the pathogen

Immunoprophylaxis by inactivated or live attenuated vaccines are used to prevent some infections caused by virulent strains of Influenza A, such as HINI and H3N2. Chemoprophylaxis control through amantadine and rimantadine hydrochloride has proven successful in treating infections and illnesses caused by Influenza A (Cornelissen and Hobbs 2019). These drugs interfere with uncoating and transport the viral particle by blocking the transmembrane M2 ion channel on the epithelial cells.

The recent research regarding the pathogen

The research investigates a variant of the Influenza A virus, H1N1 Swine flu. The variant is zoonotic as it causes respiratory infections in both pigs and humans. The HINI caused a pandemic in 1918 and 2009, infecting around 500 million people globally and killing 50 million to 100 million individuals (Jilani et al. 2018). The virus is spread from human to human through the inhalation of respiratory droplets.

Bibliography

Adivitiya, Manish Singh Kaushik, Soura Chakraborty, Shobi Veleri, and Suneel Kateriya. 2021.Biology 10 (2). Web.

Cornelissen, Cynthia Nau, and Marcia Metzgar Hobbs. 2019. Microbiology. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, C.

Dawson, Wayne K, Michal Lazniewski, and Dariusz Plewczynski. 2017.Briefings in Functional Genomics 17 (6): 402–14. Web.

Jilani, Talha N., Radia T. Jamil, and Abdul H. Siddiqui. “H1N1 influenza (swine flu).” (2018).

Suhasini, G. 2017. Textbook of Microbiology and Immunology. Jaipur: Book Enclave.

Zost, Seth J, Nicholas C Wu, Scott E Hensley, and Ian A Wilson. 2019. The Journal of Infectious Diseases 219 (Supplement_1): S38–45. Web.

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