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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
One of the novel coronavirus' most insidious tricks is that it can block the ability of cells to produce protective proteins without hindering its own ability to replicate.
Now, a multidisciplinary team of Yale researchers has discovered how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, accomplishes this trick by blocking production of cellular proteins, including immune molecules, and contributes to severe illness in its host.
"The virus essentially reprograms host cells, and by understanding this mechanism we can hopefully design new therapeutics,'' said Yong Xiong, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and co-corresponding author of the research published in the journal Molecular Cell.
[...] However, it remains unknown how the virus is still able to produce its own proteins, using the same ribosome, to replicate in the cell after it disables the cell's ability to make normal proteins, Xiong said.
Journal Reference:
Shuai Yuan, Lei Peng, Jonathan J. Park, Yingxia Hu, Swapnil C. Devarkar, Matthew B. Dong, Qi Shen, Shenping Wu, Sidi Chen, Ivan B. Lomakin, Yong Xiong. Nonstructural protein 1 of SARS-CoV-2 is a potent pathogenicity factor redirecting host protein synthesis machinery toward viral RNA.. Molecular Cell, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.10.034
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2020, @02:00AM (3 children)
Noticed in 2002 due to SARS, studied by many after that.
A detailed description from year 2009:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2682096/ [nih.gov]
(the variance in terminology: what is called "Betacoronaviruses" now, was called "group 2 CoVs" then; then-"subgroups 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d" are now "lineage A, B, C, D": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betacoronavirus#Classification [wikipedia.org] )
The 2b subgroup (all the SARS stuff and some bat viruses) appears to have an extra feature, degrading the host RNAs (while viral ones are labeled and thus protected). This article from 2011 describes it in detail:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3234236/ [nih.gov]
Given that the 2a subgroup has two human coronaviruses, OC43 and HKU1, that are out there causing common cold, it appears that it is that second feature, and not the one in TFA, that makes all the difference.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2020, @03:06PM (2 children)
thanks for link.
i just want to add that all material making the virus, -aka- "the virus" is not foreign material. it is made from host material.
in short, if we could color aminoacids (?) from the host as, say "green", then the virus leaving thru a sneeze or cough is totally "green".
just saying 'cause mostly it reads like the virus has access to your fridge and vegetable garden and can magically teleport stuff from there and replicate itself from there?
a sick person is a person convinced "somehow" to shed part of themselfs (destructively) in a way so that other people start doing the same?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2020, @03:58PM (1 child)
It is foreign *code*. Just as a computer virus is; there is indeed similarity beyond the name.
No matter if it is host bits and bytes, or host nucleotides and amino acids, that are arranged in a foreign-to-host pattern; problems in both cases happen when the host software / enzymes and genes are not prepared to recognize and counter the foreign malicious code, while said code is designed / evolved to recognize and misuse or counter the host stuff while doing its malicious thing.
A computer virus similar to the 2b subgroup coronaviruses, would be 1) controlling the exec() entrypoint to allow only viral code to start; and 2) erasing all programs not tagged with the viral marker sequence. And, naturally, copying itself and sending copies where it can.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2020, @05:52PM
ok.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Thursday November 12 2020, @03:43AM
Ugh, are people so ignorant they can't separate the virus from the disease it causes?
For Christ's sake, just use the official name: EBOLAIDS.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti