How Swine Flu H1N1 virus infects the respiratory system and attacks the healthy cells?
Transcript
Swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by a relatively new strain of influenza virus known as H1N1.
It is a contagious viral infection transmitted by inhalation or ingestion of infected droplets, such as from people sneezing or coughing.
The H1N1 virus has multiple parts. Inside the virus is genetic material that carries a blueprint for building copies of the virus.
The virus has an envelope with spikes of proteins referred to as H and N proteins, which give rise to the naming convention for the virus.
Swine flu typically infects cells in the respiratory system first, such as the nose, throat or lungs.
The H spike on the virus attaches to receptors on the surface of the healthy cell membrane. This allows the virus to penetrate the cell. As it does so, the body forms a membrane around the virus molecule
The virus then travels towards the cell’s command center, the nucleus, and opens up to release its genetic content inside the cells cytoplasm.
The viral genetic content enters the nucleus, where it uses the cells own machinery to print copies of itself.
Some of these copies travel out of the nucleus, back into the cytoplasm. There they attach to ribosomes. Ribosomes are like factories that produce parts based on a blueprint.
The viral blueprint causes ribosomes to manufacture proteins, like the H and N spikes, that are needed to create new virus molecules.
Now all components needed to create a new virus assemble below the cell membrane, and using the cells own surface membrane to create the viral envelope form into a new virus. In this way a single cell can produce millions of viruses.
The viral load on the cell also causes the cell to burst.
These newly generated viruses then go on to infect other healthy cells causing the flu.
The video has been medically reviewed by Dr. Manissha Sharma – General Physician
Dr. Manissha Sharma
Dr. Dr. Manissha Sharma is an MBBS with over 17 years of experience. She is the Director and Co-founder of Doctors Hub, a polyclinic that believes in reviving the concept of easy, evidence based, empathetic, neighborhood medical care in the most ethical manner.
Her past experience ranges from serving in the Indian Navy in capacity of Medical Officer in charge MI rooms in Indian Naval Hospitals and Principal Medical Officer in Independent Naval Units where she was commended twice by the Commander In Chief Commendation From Eastern And Western Fleet of The Indian Navy for her excellence in service. This was followed by 7.5 years at Sitaram Bhartia Clinic as General Physician where she established her name in the field of being a family physician /family doc. After this collective experience of 16 years ‘Doctors Hub’ was born.