Zika Virus Analysis

A woman who is pregnant can transmit the Zika virus to her baby. Babies who have been infected with the virus can be born with microcephaly, a birth defect that impacts head size and brain development.

The Olympic Games in Rio De Jaineiro during this past summer of 2016 shared the spotlight with the Zika Virus. Many athletes were concerned about this new transmitted virus and proceeded to walk away from the games. Even with many of the athletes backing out of the games there were many brave athletes that looked past this obstacle and focused on something else, winning the gold. The committee was thinking of relocating the Olympic Games because of the Zika breakout and all of the commotion it had caused. Not many knew about the new virus; how you could get it and how it was being spread. Many people just thought it was just another normal mosquito bite that only gave some type of minor flu. Little did anyone know that in fact the Zika Virus is very harmful and, can end up being deadly.

Marsha- As we know, the Zika virus can be passed from the mother to the fetus and can cause congenital microcephaly and other severe brain defects to the fetus. If you have a confirmed case of the Zika virus, does your department have a protocol in place for scanning these patients? Have you performed a case that there was a confirmed case of the Zika virus? If so, can you tell us what the physicians plan was for the patient and fetus?

The virus is spreading through two different types of Aedes mosquitoes. Adults with the virus may only experience mild symptoms including pain, rash, or a slight fever (Partlow). The virus can often go unnoticed (Romero). The problems arise within the children born to women who have the virus. It is speculated that the Zika virus is causing infants to be born with microcephaly. This causes the child to be born with an abnormally small head and incomplete brain development. Brazil has been hit hardest with the virus and has seen over 4,000 cases of microcephaly

The influenza virus is part of the Orthomyxoviridae family and is spherical in shape with many spike-like projections of glycoproteins HA. The viral core is composed of eight negative-sense, single

The influenza virus usually has a round shape; it can be elongated or even have an irregular shape at times. In addition, it has a layer of spikes on its exterior. Note that there are two different types of these spikes. Each spike has its own protein, one is the hemagglutinin (HA) protein and the other is the neuraminidase (NA) protein. The HA protein lets the virus to attach to a cell, so it can enter into a host cell and start the infection process (every virus must enter cells in order to make more copies of themselves). The NA protein is needed for the virus to leave the host cell, so that new viruses that were made inside the host cell can infect more cells. Because these proteins are present on the surface of the virus, they are visible to the human immune system. Inside the layer of spikes, are eight pieces of RNA that contain the genetic information for making new copies of the virus. Each segment contains instructions to make one or more proteins of the virus.

A multidisciplinary team from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is the first in the world to engineer a clone of Zika virus strain. The findings were published in a study on Monday. This development can expedite many aspects of Zika research including

Daclatasvir is an HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor. NS5A is a viral protein with no enzymatic activity that is essential for HCV RNA replication and assembly. Its role in replication appears to be the formation of a membranous web along with viral protein NS4B, and this web provides a platform for replication. Futhermore, NS5A is composed of 3 domains; domains I and II are essential for HCV replication and domain III plays a role in virion assembly [24,25]. Also, NS5A contains phosphorylation sites, which act as regulators

Blok and Air 1982b; Fields et al. 1981 is one of the two major glycoproteins on the virus surface.

Influenza viruses belong to the Orthomyxoviridae family of families, and has a single-stranded RNA genome segments. Basis of influenza virus core protein on into A, B and C. ( WHO 2014)

SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) currently has no cure, but with research, a possible cure and or a vaccination can be created to prevent future outbreaks of this virus. To better understand this virus there has been some research regarding what pathways are activated as SARS-CoV is in the human body. There are many different types of proteins that are part of this virus; with one of the most commonly studied proteins being structural proteins and nucleocapsid proteins. Proteins are being modified so that the virus can “engage, modify and/ or disrupt the host cell signaling and nuclear import machinery for the benefit of the virus replications,” (Frieman, 2008). Proteins such as structural proteins are being changed which also changes how the human body reacts to the virus,

Many international diseases lead to epidemics in America. One current epidemic right now is the Zika Virus. In order to ward off more epidemics there should be more prevention precautions taken. Joe Heller, the illustrator of the cartoon above works for the Green Bay Press. He has been awarded 8 best of gannett awards and 6 milwaukee press club awards. The message of this cartoon is not hard to see. Epidemics are serious and more should be done to put a stop to them.

Zika virus (ZIKV), a Flaviviridae family member is an arbovirus transmitted to humans by mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti. ZIKV epidemic over the past few years has implicated a rapid incline in neonatal microcephaly and Guillain Barre syndrome has become an immense global health issue. Like other Flavivirus, ZIKV has an enveloped, single positive sense RNA genome. The ZIKV glycosylated non- structural protein-1 (NS1) is known to be the main conserved feature among flavivirus, which interferes with host molecules and is vital in viral replication as well host immune modulation and pathogenesis. However, compared to typical flaviviruses such as dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus ,ZIKV NS1 demonstrates independent coding sequence

The most sophisticated way may be to avoid the mosquitos altogether. According to the World Health Organization More than a handful governments and pharmaceutical companies are working on a vaccine for Zika. Some are hunting old-fashioned vaccines, like the ones used to protect from measles and chicken pox; these vaccines stimulate the body's immune response by exposing it to a faded version of the virus or just simply to the molecules from a virus that cause the body to produce antibodies. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) mentioned that by following the blueprint used to create a vaccine for the mosquito-borne West Nile virus would be a cheaper and faster way around it. That technique relies on injecting DNA particles — normally found inside the cells of a bacteria — that are separated from a cell's DNA and can duplicate by itself. DNA molecules (plasmids) have the advantage of carrying the DNA code for their virus' antigens, without being contagious, therefore stimulating the body's autoimmune response. So far, the plasmid-based West Nile virus vaccine was successful in its early experimental tests.

Through Crystallographic Analysis, researchers were able to determine the structure of the viral NSP3 protein. The NSP3 protein is