Riddle me this...

N

night

Science Man Extrodinaire
Registered Senior Member
Hello evry1,

So as many of you know the avian fluy is a rising problem that could become a pandemic. And I am curious, what exactically is the chemical make up of avian influenza. Also ive heard H5N1 does that mean it has 5 Hydrogens and 1 Nitrogen? I would think that impossible because hydrogen and nitrogen are -gens, which means they have to be grouped in 2's...

Let me know,

Joe
 
Atoms!?!? :eek: No no no, you are way off in scale there. A virus is made of 1000's of molecules, most of them long biological polymers each made of 1000's of atoms themselves.

The H and N stand for Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase, respectively. These are enzymes that are part of the outer coat of the influenza virus. Their function is to help the new viral particles break free of the host cells. Thus, they are key determinants of how pathogenic a particular virus strain is for a given organism. There are 16 hemagglutinin and 9 neuraminidase variants, so a popular way to characterize flu strains is to name them according to what hemagglutinin and neuraminidase variants they contain.

-- There are 3 distinct hemagglutinins (H1, H2, and H3) found in human flu viruses - 13 others have been found in animal flu viruses.

-- There are 2 distinct neuraminidases (N1 and N2) in human viruses - 7 others in other animals.<P>
 
Riddle me this... Riddle me... Riddle... is this a riddle? the "typos", the wrong "facts", etc... it's gotta be a riddle.
Too bad I suck at riddles... so I'll just reply as if you were serious.
Also ive heard H5N1 does that mean it has 5 Hydrogens and 1 Nitrogen? I would think that impossible because hydrogen and nitrogen are -gens, which means they have to be grouped in 2's...
Click to expand...
if by "-gens" you meant "genes" (in riddle speak it could be mutagens? gems?), then first of all... you didn't really mean genes. lol. Genes don't come in pairs, nucleotides in DNA do. Hydrogen and nitrogen aren't genes, or DNA, or nucleotides, they are elements. Viruses aren't all made out of double stranded nucleic acids, some have single stranded RNA, some double stranded RNA, some double stranded DNA and some single stranded DNA. nucleotides only come in pairs when the nucleic acid is double stranded.
 
Hercules,

Their function is to help the new viral particles break free of the host cells.
Click to expand...

Ouch.
That was a bit simplistic of you. I guess you're not a virologist, but still, I'm surprised by your oversimplification.

Hemagglutinin (HA) is NOT used to escape the cell, but is rather used to enter the cell. It binds to membrane proteins with a sialic acid tail. The HA is then cleaved by another surface protein, Trypsin, which is essential to Influenza's life cycle.

Usually.

The Spanish Flu of 1918, was particularly virulent for several reasons.

One of those reasons was because Trypsin was not needed to cleave the HA. Instead, a modified neuraminidase (NA) did the job. This increased the types of cells that could be infected by the virus. (It's been a while since I've studied this. And I forget if there's a connection between sialic acid and trypsin... I think there was something about Sialic Acid that I'm forgetting. I'll look back to some old posts and see if I can remember...)

Anyway.

The NA is crucial for exiting the cell. Not the HA.

(The 1918 flu was also especially deadly because of the HA. It was far more effective at infecting than ordinary HA's. More virulent, in other words.)


AlphaWolf,

if by "-gens" you meant "genes"
Click to expand...

Don't think so.
I think he meant hydrogen. Oxygen.

I'd never heard that before though. Is that true? The 'gen' suffix implies a stable molecule as a pair?
 
>> lol. Genes don't come in pairs,

yea they do, they always have two legs...
 
invert_nexus said:
Ouch That was a bit simplistic of you. I guess you're not a virologist, but still, I'm surprised by your oversimplification.
Click to expand...
And I’m surprised at your over-reaction. Given the technical level of the original post I think your corrections are beyond the scope of the question. Nonetheless, thanks for the info. I do find this topic very interesting, especially the reasons behind the exceptional virulence of the Spanish Flu. I am not a virologist by any means – I was going from my memory of a review article in Cell from a few months ago on avian influenzas. <P>
 
Hey guys,

No this is not a riddle,

Sorry for not replying earlier but I was away for the weekend. First off, i was writing another post at the same time, and i mixed up the titles, "DUH". However I also do not spell check my posts so, come on give me a break. Anyway, Id like to just clear something up the "-gens" i am refering to are in fact -gens, and whoever said that "-gens" means Hydrogen and how they always remain in pairs is correct, but I guess that does not matter because H5N1 - The Hemoglobbin and the other thing that guy said - sry for not remebering, i dont even think hemoglobbin is right -. However 1 question still remains unanswered, what is the chemical make up? does anyone? I do recall something about 1,000's of molecules but are they similar or more complex???

Let me know,

Joe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top