1answer.
Ask question
Login Signup
Ask question
All categories
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Social Studies
  • Business
  • History
  • Health
  • Geography
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Computers and Technology
  • Arts
  • World Languages
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Advanced Placement (AP)
  • SAT
  • Medicine
  • Law
  • Engineering
kolbaska11 [484]
3 years ago
12

Are viral infections curable? Why or why not?

Biology
2 answers:
Lemur [1.5K]3 years ago
8 0
Search Results
Featured snippet from the web
For most viral infections, treatments can only help with symptoms while you wait for your immune system to fight off the virus. Antibiotics do not work for viral infections. There are antiviral medicines to treat some viral infections. Vaccines can help prevent you from getting many viral diseases.
Anna11 [10]3 years ago
7 0

Answer:

no.

Explanation:

Viruses, on the other hand, are not cellular. We can't kill them simply by disrupting their cells. They are infective nucleic acids which cannot replicate outside of living cells. They must invade a human cell to reproduce, because they cannot produce energy or synthesize molecules on their own. Some viruses replicate inside human cells and then bud off from the human cell inside an "envelope" made from the human cell's own membrane, which helps them evade the immune system on their way to infecting another human cell. Many viruses are protected by protein capsids, which are extremely protective--unlike a bacterial cell wall or membrane, the virus doesn't have to be alive inside the capsid or exchange nutrients and waste with the environment across the capsid; the capsid is merely there to protect the nucleic acid of the virus.

Viruses need to match some sort of receptor in order to gain entry into human cells, and in some viruses, this receptor is one of the few good targets for drug therapy; however, unlike antibacterials, the drug will only work for that particular virus/receptor, because each virus uses a different receptor.

Viruses spend time inside human cells, which protects any outer antigens from some of the aspects of the immune system. There are times when viruses are especially vulnerable during replication, but there are reasons they are harder than bacteria to target with these antireplication drugs: 1) unlike for most bacteria, the drugs need to be small enough to enter the human cell where the virus is replicating, 2) unlike for most bacteria, the drugs can't simply target a protein shared by most viruses; furthermore, many viruses hijack human proteins which cannot be targeted. Overall, there are comparatively few antiviral drugs compared to antibiotics because of the huge difficulty in obtaining selective toxicity. And 3) most drugs available target a certain step of viral replication for a certain family of viruses; however, by the time the patient shows symptoms, the virus has already created countless copies of itself or become latent in human cells, and at that point it is too late for most of the antiviral drugs to be super helpful since they target the replication itself. Even when a good antiviral drug is developed, most of them work only against a single species (or at best, a family) of viruses, which is not the case for most antibiotics.

Many viruses don't spread in ways where they can easily targeted (Polio moves from the GI tract to lymph nodes and then to the blood stream on it's way to the spinal cord to cause paralysis; it is vulnerable to the immune system in vaccinated individuals while it is forced to travel in the blood. In contrast, some viruses like rabies, herpes, and varicella-zoster spread through neurons in order to evade the immune system. Other viruses form syncytia because they travel directly from cell to cell). Also remember that some viruses integrate themselves into human DNA and remain latent for long periods of time, which prevents them from being cleared by drugs or the immune system. The human immune system does have its ways of dealing with viruses, which I can get into in greater detail in another post. For certain viruses, the only way we have to treat them is to use interferons to ramp up the immune system (a very unpleasant therapy which must often be maintained for very long periods of time).

One of the reasons that vaccines for some viruses are not effective is that oftentimes, a live (attenuated) vaccine cannot be made for those certain viruses since the reversion mutation rate is too high to provide an acceptable risk; for many viruses, only killed strains can be used, if at all. Without a live attenuated virus strain multiplying inside cells, certain critical aspects of the immune system are not activated against these certain viruses. In cases where killed viruses are able to be used as vaccines, the protection is lesser (for instance, no type-switching to IgA antibodies which would be more effective than IgM) and shorter-lived.

You might be interested in
Which of the following is a function of chloroplasts?
Shalnov [3]
The answer is B. Chloroplasts absorb sunlight to enable a plant to make food. This is because these organelles contain special pigments like chlorophyll that enable them to absorb sunlight and its energy to be used later by the cell!
Hope this helped!
6 0
4 years ago
Read 2 more answers
What are cells, and what do they do?
Genrish500 [490]

Answer:

Cells are the basic building blocks of all living things. The human body is composed of trillions of cells. They provide structure for the body, take in nutrients from food, convert those nutrients into energy, and carry out specialized functions.

4 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
What is the last phase of the Cell Cycle? (This is when the genetic material has already been duplicated and what is left to do
Marianna [84]

Answer: mitotic phase

Explanation:

The cell cycle has two phases the Interphase and mitosis. Interphase is the growth phase where the cell prepares itself for the cell division. It is divided into three phase G1 phase( Cell growth),S phase ( DNA synthesis) and G2 phase(cell growth).

Mitotic phase has a multiple steps this is where the duplicated chromosomes are aligned or arranged, separated, and move into two new, identical daughter cells(cytokinesis)

The first step in the mitotic phase is called karyokinesis or nuclear division where the chromosomes are separated and move in opposite direction and the second portion of the mitotic phase, called cytokinesis which is the physical separation of the chromatids into the two daughter cells.

7 0
3 years ago
Antelopes and elephants feed on the same species of grasses and shrubs in a savanna and the fitness of each species is reduced w
34kurt

Interspecific competition occurs between antelopes and elephants.

The term "competition" refers to the process that takes place among many species as they fight for the same limited resources in order to maintain their own existence. This struggle over resources occurs among organisms because these species occupy niches that overlap, and as a result, they are compelled to use the same resources like food, water, and shelter.

Competition can be either interspecific or intraspecific. The term "interspecific competition" refers to a type of competition that occurs between various species that live in the same biological area and are dependent on the same source of food.

In the question, both antelopes and elephants feed on the same grass and shrub species. Therefore they compete amongst themselves as a result of which their fitness is reduced.

Learn more about the interspecific competition here:

brainly.com/question/1638475

#SPJ4

7 0
2 years ago
Organisms that can survive in changing conditions are called
swat32

i said the same answer as that guy so thats just wrong of u

3 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Other questions:
  • Put the five kingdoms of living things in order from the simplest organism to the most complex
    13·1 answer
  • What are the differences between receptor-mediated endocytosis and phagocytosis?
    7·1 answer
  • What is oil of vitriol called
    5·2 answers
  • When the thermocline is periodically upset during the year, certain materials will be mixed that will result in the greatest pro
    13·1 answer
  • The greatest source of moisture entering the atmosphere is evaporation from the surface of _____________.
    14·1 answer
  • What does Binomial Nomenclature mean? (In the grand scheme people! No one-word answers!)
    6·1 answer
  • Difference between observation and inference
    14·1 answer
  • The periosteum is secured to the underlying bone by ________.
    14·1 answer
  • What carbohydrate is made during the process of photosynthesis?
    8·1 answer
  • Though narcotics can effectively manage pain or reduce anxiety, they...
    6·2 answers
Add answer
Login
Not registered? Fast signup
Signup
Login Signup
Ask question!