China’s residents fear a new disease.
Five years after the coronavirus, China’s residents fear a new disease. Rhinovirus and HMP virus outbreaks in the country. A recent report by Reuters said that residents of the northern region are the most affected by this respiratory problem.
The situation is being closely monitored.The country’s disease control authority said. five years ago from the country where the coronavirus spread across the world.
Brought a terrible disaster, now another disease is spreading rapidly in China. With the onset of winter, the number of patients suffering from respiratory problems is increasing in the country.
The number of patients suffering from respiratory problems is not yet confirmed, but initially it is believed that this respiratory disease is increasing due to the infection of rhinovirus and HMP virus.
Acute Respiratory problems
Hospitals are crowded with acute respiratory problems in December. Many people are most affected by northern residents. News agency Reuters says that the country’s disease control authorities are closely monitoring the infection situation in the winter of the immune system.
The number of infections will increase in the winter. During the season, however, outbreaks of influenza or cold fever are not uncommon in China.
Last year, many people were hospitalized due to the mysterious virus. At that time, the
outbreak was so high in several areas that the administration was forced to physically close classes in schools. But Beijing claims that the situation will not be the same as last year.
The latest coronavirus pandemic, with symptoms similar to the current one, started in China in 2019. After the outbreak of Covid-19 that spread and became a pandemic Whole World. Most of us get a cold at least once a year.
Why does this happen exactly?
While there are many pathogens that can cause the common cold. Rhinovirus is considered to be the main culprit, responsible for more than one-half of cold-like illnesses. In fact, somewhere in the ballpark of one hundred different strains, or serotypes, of rhinoviruses have been associated with cold-like symptoms in humans.
Rhinovirus, which is sometimes referred to as RV, was isolated back in 1956 by Dr. Winston Price at Johns Hopkins University. The virus itself is what’s referred to as a positive-sense, single-stranded non-enveloped RNA virus belonging to the picornavirus family.
Let’s recall that viruses are simply genetic material, either RNA or DNA, surrounded by a protective coat. In the case of single-stranded RNA viruses, there are two types, either positive-sense or negative-sense RNA. With a positive strand, the RNA can act as mRNA and be directly translated in the ribosomes of the host cell.
With a negative strand.
this will act as the complement of what would be the sense strand, so the virus must also contain an enzyme called RNA-dependent RNA polymerase that can use the negative strand to generate the positive strand through complementary base pairing. Then the newly made positive strand can be translated to generate the viral proteins.
In the case of rhinoviruses, the positive RNA genome serves as mRNA, which codes for proteins that are involved in replication, virus assembly, and the structural aspects, namely the capsid.
We also know that rhinoviruses don’t have an envelope surrounding their RNA. Now let’s dig into what it means to be a part of the picornavirus family, which is one of the largest families of viruses.
Let’s start with the name.
These viruses are small, hence the prefix pico, and contain ribonucleic acid, hence the RNA. They also have a naked capsid structure. The picornavirus family has over 230 members, which are divided into five genera: Enterorvirus, Rhinovirus, Heparnavirus, Cardiovirus, and Aphthovirus.
Compared to the other genera, rhinoviruses are known to be sensitive to acidic pH and replicate poorly at temperatures above 33 degrees Celsius, which typically limits them to causing upper respiratory tract infections.
Now let’s talk about structure.
The positive-strand RNA of picornaviruses is surrounded by an icosahedral capsid, which is that soccer ball looking shape we talked about earlier. The icosahedral capsid has 12 pentameric vertices, which are each composed of sets of proteins.
For all picornaviruses, the capsid is stable in the presence of detergents or heat, but in the case of rhinoviruses, not in the presence of acid, as we mentioned.
Now let’s dig into how these viruses do their damage.
Picornavirus particles attach to host cells by binding to specific host cell receptors. And remember, these host cell receptors have normal functions in host cells, it just so happens that these viruses have adapted to bind to them.
To be more specific, upwards of 80% of rhinoviruses bind to specific molecules called ICAM-1, which stands for intercellular adhesion molecule-1, on the surface of epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells.
The process of the virus binding to the appropriate receptor on the appropriate type of cell is what we refer to as attachment.
Attachment then triggers conformational changes in surface proteins of the capsid, which causes penetration and uncoating. The rhinovirus RNA is injected directly into the cytoplasm of the host cell.
Once inside, the genetic material doesn’t have to undergo transcription, of course, because it’s already mRNA.
The host cell ribosome then translates the viral genetic material, triggering a very intricate and tightly controlled process of protein chopping and virus assembly, all orchestrated by the directions encoded in the viral genome.
About Rhinovirus and HMP infection.
At the same time, the host cell generates tons of viral mRNA. Ultimately, many, many rhinovirus particles are made, as many as 100,000 virions per cell, which are then released via cell lysis, where the cell sort of explodes.
Thinking in more detail about rhinovirus infection. It turns out as little as one infectious viral particle can initiate an infection. The virus typically enters through the eyes, mouth, or nose, either by airborne droplets generated by a sneeze or cough, or by passage on fomites. Then initiates an infection in the upper respiratory tract.
Most of the viral replication going on there happens in the nose. The severity of symptoms really depends on how much, and when, the virus is shedding.
At the peak of infection. The nasal secretions of an infected person. Commonly referred to as snot, can contain concentrations of 500 to 1000 infectious virions per milliliter. The infected cells release chemicals like histamine, which cause the characteristic runny nose and other irritating symptoms associated with the common cold.
So many serotypes of rhinoviruses.
Since there are so many serotypes of rhinoviruses. It’s almost impossible to build up a lasting immunity to them, which is what results in rhinovirus-induced colds being so “common.” There are other viruses and bacteria that cause similar symptoms too, like enteroviruses, coronaviruses, and adenoviruses. For the most part, it’s difficult to identify which pathogen made you sick. And furthermore, any cold is likely to pass pretty quickly.
Thinking about rhinoviruses out in the wild. There are two main mechanisms by which they are spread, as we’ve discussed, either by breathing in aerosol droplets, or by fomites. Which means on hands or contaminated inanimate objects.
The major vector for viruses.
Some experts think that hands are the major vector for viruses, and direct person-to-person contact is the predominant mode of spreading. Plus, these non-enveloped viruses are extremely stable and can survive on things like doorknobs and toothbrush handles for hours. At the same time, we know that rhinoviruses cause clinical illness in only half of the people infected. Though asymptomatic people can also spread the virus, even if they make much less of it.
For the most part, infants and children have the highest rates of rhinovirus infection. Though they can spread these infections to their family members pretty easily. And especially during the colder months. It’s not surprising for rhinoviruses to be passed around in school or other social settings.
When it comes to treatment.There are tons of over-the-counter remedies that help treat the common cold. But rhinoviruses aren’t a solid candidate for vaccination, since there are so many serotypes.
Handwashing and disinfecting commonly handled items is the best way to prevent spreading of the virus.
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