From: | Paul Gettle <RunnerPaul@*****.COM> |
---|---|
Subject: | Re: Retrovirii [was: Growing new parts} |
Date: | Mon, 6 Jul 1998 11:18:52 -0400 |
At 02:02 PM 7/6/98 +0100, Spike wrote:
>And verily, did Koenig Boldizsar hastily scribble thusly...
>|BTW, what is a retrovirus? I know both retro- and virus, but this
>|compound eludes me.
>
>I think a normal virus injects its DNA into your cell, the cell then
turns
>into a virus factory and eventually explodes.
>
>With a retrovirus, I think it adds something to your DNA that changes
it's
>characteristics. I'm not sure how it replicates. Maybe some cells
become
>virus factories and others just... change... Or maybe they only
produce
>viruses when the cell splits in two.....
>
>I'll leave it to the biologically adept bods out there...
Ok. The difference between a virus and a retrovirus is in the material
used to cary the virus's genetic code.
A virus uses DNA, just like cells do. This DNA is injected into the
cell, along with enzymes that 'edit' the DNA string into the cell's
own code.
A retrovirus's genetic materia isn't DNA. Instead, they use RNA.
Normal cells use RNA as a 'work order' from the nucleus to the cell's
protein factories. RNA is similar to DNA, except it doesn't helix,
because of the substitution of one of the nucleotide bases.
Because a retrovirus uses RNA, it also has a special enzyme, that
builds a DNA string from the retrovirus's RNA (exactly oposite of the
usual process, where an RNA string is built from a DNA string). This
new DNA string is edited into the cell's code by the usual methods.
Retrovirii are different from other viruses in several other ways too.
Because most of the existing data is about virii and not retrovirii,
they are much harder to combat. Even the most carefully studied
retrovirus, Human Imunodeficency Virus, is far from a cure.
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--
-- Paul Gettle (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
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