#Influenza viruse

[mindblowingscience]

The threat is thought to be so severe that it could wipe out the species entirely.

The discovery comes after the distinctive bird's genome was sequenced for the first time in 2021.

Ordinarily, this achievement would be something to celebrate from a scientific perspective – but a comparison with closely-related northern hemisphere white swans has revealed that certain key immune genes are missing from its DNA.

That's likely to be, at least partly, down to the way that the black swan is isolated geographically. These animals haven't had the same exposure to pathogens that are found outside of southeast and southwest Australia, the areas where it primarily lives and breeds.

"[B]lack swans are extremely sensitive to highly pathogenic avian influenza – HPAI which is often referred to as bird flu - and can die from it within three days," says microbiologist Kirsty Short from the University of Queensland in Australia.

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[bpod-bpod]

Change the Channel

Blocking the budding of viruses – when they wrap themselves in the host cell membrane and move off to spread the infection – could be a good strategy to stop them in their tracks. Researchers interested in alphaviruses – a type that includes chikungunya and Sindbis viruses – examined the role of a protein called 6K in virus assembly and spreading. They found that it functions as a channel to let molecules pass through membranes, like has been seen in proteins of HIV and influenza. This ion channel activity was needed for the formation of vacuoles in the cell, which promote the transport of proteins to the cell lining where they are incorporated into new virus particles (these proteins in red spread throughout the membrane, left, compared to clumping in the absence of 6K, right). Interfering with 6K action could be a new way to treat infection, and nip budding in the bud.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Zeinab Elmasri and colleagues

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Pathogens, October 2022

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[queerforscience]

Today on "being a giant epidemiology nerd," I was trying to think of something related to sniffing to name my Sniffers, so I named them after flu subtypes.

PSA: if you're in the Northern hemisphere, get your flu shot soon! If you're in the US, you can get it along with your updated COVID booster. I am not sure about the COVID booster approvals in other countries, but it may be similar! If you're over 60 or pregnant, also talk to your doctor about the new RSV vaccines!

[kaeyapilled]

they werent lying that flu can shot

[himmurf]

Internet Explorer, with their skeletal hand raised: Back in my day, you might think the guy who sang numa numa was the first thing to go go viral. He had a section on Oprah, he did. Or that man with the skateboarding pug!

Ok, back to bed, grandma.

*pushes Internet Explorer back into it's grave.

watching a tiktok and someone just described the black/blue gold/yellow dress meme as “one of the first things to ever go viral”

[news-buzz]

RSV hospitalization charge for seniors is 10 occasions increased than traditional for this level within the season

CNN  —  The respiratory virus season has began early in youngsters this 12 months and flooded youngsters’s hospitals in lots of components of the nation – particularly with respiratory syncytial virus, generally known as RSV. However adults can get RSV, too. Though RSV doesn’t sometimes ship as many adults to the hospital, it may be a critical and even lethal illness for seniors and other…

[todayworldnews2k21]

Heres How Bird Flu Can Cause You Severe Health Problems

In this article, we’ll explore how bird flu affects human health, the potential complications it can lead to, and why it remains a public health concern. Heres How Bird Flu Can Cause You Severe Health Problems Bird flu, also known as avian influenza, is primarily a viral infection that affects birds but can occasionally infect humans and other animals. While bird flu is relatively rare in…

[neosciencehub]

Impact of Low Pathogenic Poultry Viruses as Co-Infecting Agents

Impact of Low Pathogenic Poultry Viruses as Co-Infecting Agents @neosciencehub #neosciencehub #featured #sciencenews #lowpathogenicpoultryvirus #NIAB

Economic Implications & Management Strategies by Dr. Piruthiviraj “Low Pathogenic Poultry Viruses (LPPVs) represent a significant yet often underestimated challenge to the global poultry industry, particularly when they act as co-infecting agents with other pathogens,” said Dr. Piruthiviraj Kumar, Chief Technical Officer and Technical Director at Indsalus Biosolutions India Pvt Ltd and M/s…

[scientificinquirer-blog]

DAILY DOSE: Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda raises global concerns; Florey Biosciences develops yeast to protect gut microbes.

MARBURG OUTBREAK IN RWANDA RAISES INTERNATIONAL HEALTH CONCERNS A significant outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda has raised international alarms, with 27 cases reported, making it one of the largest on record. Tragically, nine individuals have died, and over 70% of the cases involve health professionals in two hospitals in Kigali, a major travel hub. The World Health Organization (WHO) has…

[spartanmemesmedical]

Understanding the Impact of Influenza A Virus in Hong Kong: A Comprehensive Overview

Introduction: Influenza A virus, a perennial health concern globally, has a significant impact on public health in Hong Kong. This respiratory virus, known for its ability to cause seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics, poses considerable challenges to healthcare systems, communities, and individuals. In this comprehensive blog, we delve into the nuances of influenza A virus in Hong Kong,…

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.  Every year, researchers try to predict the four influenza strains that are most likely to be prevalent during the upcoming flu season. And every year, people line up to get their updated vaccine, hoping the researchers formulated the shot correctly. The same is true of COVID vaccines, which have been reformulated to target sub-variants of the most prevalent strains circulating in the U.S. This new strategy would eliminate the need to create all these different shots, because it targets a part of the viral genome that is common to all strains of a virus. The vaccine, how it works, and a demonstration of its efficacy in mice is described in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  “What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is that it is broad,” said UCR virologist and paper author Rong Hai. “It is broadly applicable to any number of viruses, broadly effective against any variant of a virus, and safe for a broad spectrum of people. This could be the universal vaccine that we have been looking for.”

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[rival-the-rose]

Last week I went to the doctor for a pre-scheduled appointment (trying to see if putting my luxated and sub luxated ribs and shoulders back every couple weeks will train them to stay in place) and as I was going thru recent symptoms my doctor pointed out that a bunch of things I thought were random and unrelated could've in fact been a viral infection.

And it's just been rattling around my brain since then. Tiny little capsules with almost nothing but simple genetic information in them got into my body and as a side effect of making more tiny capsules, they made me barf for exactly three hours, then gave me sialoadenitis, then made my left elbow swell up and hurt. Sure. Ok. How does that help you, little capsules. Why just the left elbow, or just the sublingual salivary gland. What are you guys doing in there. I'm not mad I just wanna know

[donnedulac]

I am so fucking sick, and especially sick of getting so sick every 2 or so months

[radiantbastard]

read the article about the mutant brain eating covid and it casually says "the original strain of Covid also killed 100 percent in mice in some studies, meaning the new results may not be directly applicable to humans." lol ok. Then I read the actual study and they note their results contradict other existing studies on this specific non-covid (though covid-like) virus, and the genetically engineered mice they used had "abnormal physiology" and potentially compromised brains, so it's worthless

For context, anon is referring to this post

I mean, I was just posting it for the memes but since we're on the subject, yeah dude, Gain of Function research is fucking wild. I think for that article in particular it's at least to some small degree the media misrepresenting the original research, but there is a MASSIVE part of the scientific community that sees GoF as a useless field of study, and incredibly dangerous. The latter belief I think was proven with the Covid pandemic, seeing as how everyone pretty much agrees now that the most likely source was the Wuhan lab.

One thing that's kind of interesting about this though is that, paradoxically, viruses with extremely high mortality rates actually tend to be less dangerous than those with low mortality rates. They might be more dangerous to the individual, but they tend to kill much less people. The thing is they tend to have much more severe/debilitating symptoms that inhibit the carrier from interacting/spreading the virus further. Since they also tend to kill off the host that also prevents it from infecting more people. Turns out it's pretty hard to catch a disease from a corpse unless you're rooting around in their guts with ungloved hands.

Viruses like influenza, i.e. the flu, tend to be much more dangerous because they spread around much more rapidly due to most people having fairly minor symptoms with it. The flu kills 30,000-40,000 people per year in the US alone.

This is also why despite the first humans being around 200,000-300,000 years ago we've never had a "super virus" that has completely wiped out the species. Viruses with high mortality rates tend to either die off from not being able to spread, or they mutate and evolve to be less deadly. The less deadly ones propagate more, and the highly deadly ones die off. This is why things like the Spanish Flu in the 1920s eventually tapered off. The highly deadly strands die off, while the more mild variants propagate and immunize people/give them resistance to similar viruses. This is likely, in part, why you saw such high mortality rates for covid in the beginning of the pandemic, but now in current day it's pretty benign.

One exception to this rule is chronic infections like HIV. Chronic infections lay dormant in the host cells before activating and reinfecting the host. Because the human immune system has no way of deinfecting cells, the virus stays in the body in perpetuity reinfecting the host and random intervals. Even without treatment HIV takes years to kill the carrier. This allows viruses like that to spread and infect large populations despite having a high mortality rate.

[mimipunk]

why are people keep living their lives while there are viruses that keep getting them sick all the time? shouldn't we all do something about it besides getting fluids , rest , painkillers , cough syrups and nasal sprays? AND BY 'DO SOMETHING' I DON'T MEAN GETTING VACCINATED... I MEAN KILLING THE VIRUSES WITH SHOTGUNS AND SHIT..

[ricisidro]

Respiratory viruses are rebounding in the United States on the precipice of the end-of-year holidays, with emergency room visits for #COVID19, #influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (#RSV) collectively reaching their highest levels since February.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/12/12/covid-rising-flu-rsv-variant/