The Circle of Life

Zaire Ebola works to spread to humans and animals. It has been known that Fruit bats are natural reservoirs of the Ebola virus. The primary way for this virus to transmit is with contaminated bodily fluids. 

The transmission from fruit bats to humans is presented in this image: 

The virus has various mechanisms to affect the host immune system. A mechanism such as the Antibody-dependent enhancement works with the host antibodies and allows the attachment to the virus to increase the infection in the cell. Macropinocytosis is a common mechanism for a virus to infect the host cell. This allows an outward extension of the plasma membrane that allows them to fold back on themselves. The ends of the distal loop then fuse and form a macriopinsome, which means that the protein is significant for the virus to enter. 

These two images present how the virus enters the cell and reproduction: 

The cell is infected by the particle attaching to the surface of the cell and releasing the nucleocapsid in. The viral genomes in the nucleocapsid are negatively coiled RNA strand. The viral RNA then replicates inside the cell and becomes new virus particles. They are released out of the cell and then move onto infect other cells. These steps are then repeated. 

 

It is known that viruses are non-living or grown on their own, thus they are unable to consume/eat. This means that viruses cannot be placed into a nutritional class or metabolic category. 

Something interesting about Zaire ebola is that the virus has been found inside rodent’s internal organs and found in Central African Republic. It is known as a zoonotic pathogen.

 

 

Here is a cool video of the animation of Ebola:

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/jdk2Zhp6FRA” frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; encrypted-media” allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

 

 

References:

• Sanchez, A., Trappier, S. G., Mahy, B. W., Peters, C. J. & Nichol, S. T. The virion glycoproteins of Ebola viruses are encoded in two reading frames and are expressed through transcriptional editing. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 93, 3602–3607 (1996) . 

 

•  Timmins, J. et al. Ebola virus matrix protein VP40 interaction with human cellular factors Tsg101 and Nedd4. J. Mol. Biol. 
• ASK Science. Ebola virus: Life cycle and pathogenicity in humans. (Aug 20, 2014)  https://www.askscientific.com/ebola-virus-life-cycle-and-pathogenicity-in-humans/