This glossary of virology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in the study of virology, particularly in the description of viruses and their actions.
A class of antimicrobial medication used specifically for treating diseases caused by viral infections
rather than ones caused by bacteria or other infectious agents. Unlike most antibiotics, antivirals typically do not destroy their target viruses but instead inhibit their development. They are distinct from virucides
.
assembly
The construction of the virus within the host
cell, using the host's metabolism.
A very large virus, especially one of the so-called nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs), which have extremely large genomes compared to the average virus and contain many unique genes not found in other organisms. Some of these viruses are larger than a typical bacterium.
The specificity with which certain pathogens, including most viruses, infect particular hosts
and host tissues. Host tropism results in most pathogens being capable of infecting only a limited range of host organisms.
1. The ability of a pathogenic virus to lie dormant or latent within a cell for a period of time before reactivating and producing new, independent virions
.
2. The phase in the life cycle of certain viruses in which, after initial infection, proliferation of virus particles ceases while the viral genome remains silently assimilated into the host cell's genome, sometimes indefinitely. The latent period ends when the virus reactivates and begins producing large amounts of viral progeny without the host cell being infected by additional external virions. Latency is a defining element of the lysogenic
form of viral replication.
Any virus or virus-like agent
that is etiologically associated with a so-called slow virus disease: a disease which, after an extended period of latency
, follows a slow, progressive course ranging from months to years before in most cases inevitably progressing to death.
virologic failure occurs when antiviral therapy (ART, nucloes(t)ide analogs, etc.) fails to suppress and sustain a person's viral load under a predetermined threshold.
A singular, stable particle that is the independent form in which a virus
exists while not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell. Virions are the products of a completed viral replication cycle; upon release from the infected cell, they are fully capable of infecting other cells of the same type.
The study of viruses
and virus-like agents, which seeks to understand and explain their structure, classification, evolution, and mechanisms of infection, as well as the diseases
they cause, techniques to isolate and culture
them, and their use in research and therapy
. Virology is often considered a subfield of microbiology or of medical science.
A submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates
only inside the living cells of other organisms. As obligate intracellular parasites
, viruses must infect cellular hosts
in order to complete their life cycles, which they achieve by co-opting
or "hijacking" the host cell's molecular machinery for their own reproduction. While not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent virions
. Most virions are exceedingly simple in structure and physically minute, averaging just 1⁄1/100
the size of the typical bacterium. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and infect all types of life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms such as bacteria and archaea.
virus attachment protein
Any protein which helps to facilitate the binding
of a virus to a receptor on a host cell.
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