History and Development of virology

The history of virology – the scientific study of viruses and the infections they cause – began in
the closing years of the 19th century. Although Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur developed the
first vaccines to protect against viral infections, they did not know that viruses existed. The first
evidence of the existence of viruses came from experiments with filters that had pores small
enough to retain bacteria. In 1892, Dmitri Ivanovsky used one of these filters to show that sap
from a diseased tobacco plant remained infectious to healthy tobacco plants despite having been
filtered. Martinus Beijerinck called the filtered, infectious substance a "virus" and this discovery
is considered to be the beginning of virology.

The subsequent discovery and partial characterization of bacteriophages by Frederick

Twort and Félix d'Herelle further catalyzed the field, and by the early 20th century many viruses
had been discovered. In 1926, Thomas Milton Rivers defined viruses as obligate parasites.
Viruses were demonstrated to be particles, rather than a fluid, by Wendell Meredith Stanley, and
the invention of the electron microscope in 1931 allowed their complex structures to be
visualised.

Characteristics of Viruses

viruses are infectious agents with both living and nonliving characteristics. They can infect
animals, plants, and even other microorganisms. Viruses that infect only bacteria are called
bacteriophages and those that infect only fungi are termed mycophages . There are even some
viruses called virophages that infect other viruses.

Living Characteristics of
Nonliving Characteristics of Viruses
Viruses
a. They reproduce at a a. They are acellular, that is, they contain no cytoplasm or
fantastic rate, but cellular organelles.
only in living host b. They carry out no metabolism on their own and must
cells. replicate using the host cell's metabolic machinery. In other
Living Characteristics of
Nonliving Characteristics of Viruses
Viruses
words, viruses don't grow and divide. Instead, new viral
components are synthesized and assembled within the
b. They can mutate. infected host cell.
c. The vast majority of viruses possess either DNA or RNA
but not both.

Recently, viruses have been declared as living entities based on the large number of protein folds
encoded by viral genomes that are shared with the genomes of cells. This indicates that viruses
likely arose from multiple ancient cells.

The vast majority of viruses contain only one type of nucleic acid: DNA or RNA, but not both.
Virus are totally dependent on a host cell for replication (i.e., they are strict intracellular
parasites.) Furthermore, viral components must assemble into complete viruses (virions) to go
from one host cell to another. Since viruses lack metabolic machinery of their own and are
totally dependent on their host cell for replication, they cannot be grown in synthetic culture
media. Animal viruses are normally grown in animals, embryonated eggs, or in cell cultures
where in animal host cells are grown in a synthetic medium and the viruses are then grown in
these cells.

Structure and Morphology of Virus

Most viruses have icosahedral or helical capsid structure, although a few have complex
virion architecture. An icosahedron is a geometric shape with 20 sides, each composed of
an equilateral triangle, and icosahedral viruses increase the number of structural units in
each face to expand capsid size.

Viruses are acellular, meaning they are biological entities that do not have a cellular
structure. Therefore, they lack most of the components of cells, such as organelles,
ribosomes, and the plasma membrane. A virion consists of a nucleic acid core, an outer
protein coating or capsid, and sometimes an outer envelope made of protein and
 phospholipid membranes derived from the host cell. The capsid is made up of protein
subunits called capsomeres. Viruses may also contain additional proteins, such as
enzymes. The most obvious difference between members of viral families is their
morphology, which is quite diverse. An interesting feature of viral complexity is that host
and virion complexity are uncorrelated. Some of the most intricate virion structures are
observed in bacteriophages, viruses that infect the simplest living organisms: bacteria.

Viruses vary in their structure. A virus particle consists of DNA or RNA within a
protective protein coat called a capsid. The shape of the capsid may vary from one
type of virus to another. The capsid is made from the proteins that are encoded by viral
genes within their genome.

The shape of the capsid serves as one basis for classification of viruses. Virally coded
proteins will self-assemble to form a capsid. Some viruses have an envelope of
phospholipids and proteins. The envelope is made from portions of the host’s cell
membrane. It surrounds the capsid and helps protect the virus from the host’s immune
system. The envelope may also have receptor molecules that can bind with host cells.
They make it easier for the virus to infect the cells.

Diagram of a Cytomegalovirus. The capsid encloses the genetic material of the virus.
The envelope which surrounds the capsid is typically made from portions of the host
cell membranes (phospholipids and proteins). Not all viruses have a viral envelope.
Helical Viruses

Helical capsids are made up of a single type of protein subunit stacked around a
central axis to form a helical structure. The helix may have a hollow center, which
makes it look like a hollow tube. This arrangement results in rod-shaped or filamentous
virions. These virions can be anything from short and very rigid, to long and very
flexible. The well-studied tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is an example of a helical virus, as
seen in the Figure below.

A helical virus, tobacco mosaic virus. Although their diameter may be very small, some
helical viruses can be quite long, as shown here. 1. Nucleic acid; 2. Viral protein units,
3. Capsid. TMV causes tobacco mosaic disease in tobacco, cucumber, pepper, and
tomato plants.

Icosahedral Viruses

Icosahedral capsid symmetry gives viruses a spherical appearance at low

magnification, but the protein subunits are actually arranged in a regular geometrical
pattern, similar to a soccer ball; they are not truly spherical. An icosahedral shape is the
most efficient way of creating a hardy structure from multiple copies of a single protein.
This shape is used because it can be built from a single basic unit protein which is used
over and over again. This saves space in the viral genome.

Complex Viruses
Complex viruses possess a capsid which is neither purely helical, nor purely
icosahedral, and which may have extra structures such as protein tails or a complex
outer wall. Viral protein subunits will self-assemble into a capsid, but the complex
viruses DNA also codes for proteins which help in building the viral capsid. Many phage
viruses are complex-shaped; they have an icosahedral head bound to a helical tail. The
tail may have a base plate with protein tail fibers. Some complex viruses do not have
tail fibers.

Viral replication

The replication cycle can be highly diverse between different species and categories of viruses.
Despite this, there are generally six broad steps required for viral replication to occur
successfully. These include attachment, penetration, uncoating, replication, assembly, and virion
release.

classification and nomenclature

Since 1966 the classification and nomenclature of viruses at the higher taxonomic levels
(families and genera) has been systematically organized by the International Committee on
Taxonomy of Viruses. The highest taxonomic group among viruses is the family; families are
named with a suffix -viridae. Subfamilies have the suffix -virinae; genera the suffix -virus. The
prefix may be another latin word or a sigla, i.e., an abbreviation derived from some initial letters.
Latinized family, subfamily, and generic names are written in italics; vernacular terms derived
from them are written in roman letters. For example, the term poxviruses is used to designate
members of the family Poxviridae. It is still customary to use vernacular terms rather than
latinized binomials for viral species, e.g., foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Virus cultivation

Viruses can only replicate in living cells. For studies of the growth of viruses and for the
production of virus components, it is, therefore, necessary to have access to cells cultivated in the
laboratory. Cell cultures are also of dominating importance for the isolation of infectious agents
in the diagnosis of virus infections. Cell cultures are established by the propagation of dispersed
cells. In some cases, such cells may grow in suspension, but most often, they grow as a
monolayer on the supporting material. Cultures established by cultivation of the cells that have
been released from organ fragments are called primary cell cultures. The cells from a primary
culture can be increased in number by passaging, which means that the cells are transferred from
one cultivation vessel to another, where they are again allowed to form a monolayer.

Virus Isolation in Laboratory

The gold standard for viral isolation is the viral culture. Viruses are intracellular parasites and
require living cells in order to replicate in the clinical laboratory. Living cells can be provided in
the form of suckling mice, embryonated chicken eggs, and cell cultures. Today, most clinical
laboratories prefer to use cell cultures rather than mouse and egg inoculation.

Virus identification depends on viral entry and proliferation in cells grown as a monolayer under
sterile tissue culture conditions. Cytopathic effect (CPE) is a pattern of cell destruction resulting
from viral infection that occurs in a characteristic pattern depending on the cell line and infecting
virus. Members of the orthomyxovirus (influenza virus) and paramyxovirus (parainfluenza virus,
or mumps) groups may fail to produce a clear-cut CPE in infected cell cultures, but they may be
detected first, or sometimes exclusively, by demonstration of the phenomenon of hemabsorption
(these viruses produce hemagglutinin molecules that protrude from the lipid bilayer of the
infected cell and bind to the guinea pig or other erythrocytes that are added to the tissue culture
tube). Once CPE is detected by visual inspection under the microscope by a skilled technologist,
confirmatory tests are performed to identify positively the virus.

Most common methods of virus identification

viral Cytopathology

Electron Microscopy

Immunofluorescence :Immunofluorescence (IF) has been used for rapid diagnosis of respiratory
tract infections, and vesicular exanthems and examination of tissues.
Polymerase Chain Reaction

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most sensitive method for revealing the presence of
otherwise undetectable quantities of the genome of RNA or DNA of human viruses.