It lacks the means to ensure its own independent existence so it infects a host cell to hijack its cellular machinery, enabling the virus to make copies of itself. The principle is the same for viruses of humans and viruses of bacteria. Scientists have studied bacteriophages for decades, observing how phages can spread through a population of bacteria, first infecting and then bursting open cells as they rapidly multiply. Or alternatively, how they can co-exist with remarkable stability , often sustaining a diverse community of bacterial species in environments such as the open oceans or the human gastro-intestinal tract.
They do this by preventing any single bacterium from growing to become too dominant, a lot like the way animal predators keep prey populations under control. The more we understand phages, the more we are starting to view them as an essential component of microbial ecosystems, maintaining diversity and functionality rather than acting as agents of disease. For example, it is now known that a diverse microbiota — the community of micro-organisms living in our guts — is associated with health in humans.
This includes the proper functioning of the immune system , the absorption of nutrients in the intestine and even our changing moods and behaviour. Phages play a key role in maintaining this diversity and are therefore, at the level of the microbial ecosystem within us, contributors to overall human wellbeing. Another fascinating area of virus research is phage therapy. A virus specific to a harmful bacterium can in principle eradicate this infection from the human body, leaving human cells untouched.
In this era of antibiotic resistance, when more and more harmful bacteria are developing resistance to our commonly used antibiotics, fighting bacteria with phages is a promising strategy.
Antibiotics usually kill a broad range of bacteria, often including the ones that benefit us as well as the disease-causing organism we want to kill. But a phage can be used with precision, like a programmed bullet that only seeks out the invading bacterium.
Viruses can also be used to fight other viruses. In a recent study of rhesus monkeys and the simian immunodeficiency virus SIV , researchers found that another virus, rhesus cytomegalovirus, could be coerced to produce the same proteins as SIV. This work has huge implications for HIV treatment in the future. It is easy to take a viral infection personally, attributing malice and cruelty to an unwelcome biological phenomenon.
But the actions of a virus are, in many respects, as indifferent as the weather. And just like accurate weather forecasting can save lives, understanding the multifaceted nature of viruses in our world can also save lives.
Knowing how a virus spreads and how it operates can also inform government policy and allow us to behave in ways that keep us safe. So, when dealing with those viruses that are, in a very real sense, our enemies, it is better to meet them with understanding rather than with fear.
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Close this content. They affect your gut People also ask. What are the worst viruses? Being a virus that was known to be developed by a government as a mean of cyber warfare makes Stuxnet pretty destructive and scary.
Slammer is easily one of the worst computer viruses of all times for two reasons: the sheer amount of panic it caused and the insane way it spread. Reference alltimelists. Some of the most common or best known viruses include the human immunodeficiency virus HIV , which is the virus that causes AIDS, the herpes simplex virus, which causes cold sores, smallpox , multiple sclerosis, and the human papilloma virus, now believed to be a leading cause of cervical cancer in adult women.
Respiratory Infections. A variety of viruses cause different types of respiratory infections. Digestive System Infections. Several types of viruses cause viral gastroenteritis,commonly called the stomach flu. List of Diseases Caused by Viruses Healthfully www. Some viruses are particularly interesting for their compression. Hepatitis delta virus is a parasite of hepatitis B virus , so it doesn't even encode all its own structural components, instead stealing them from a co-infecting HBV.
And it's done away with protein enzymes by converting part
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