Download Prions, viral pathogens

Ch. 13 and HIV/Influenza reading guide
What are some examples of DNA viruses?
What is the link between HPV and cervical cancer? Since the body usually clears HPV, why is this vaccine
being hailed as such good news? What viral proteins are involved in cancer formation during HPV
infection? Why might HPV want cells to continue dividing?
What are the hemorrhagic viruses we’ve talked about? How are they transmitted? What does
hemorrhagic mean? Why was the Reston virus outbreak so scary?
What kind of a virus is HIV? How is it transmitted? What role does screening play in preventing HIV from
entering the blood bank supply?
Where is it thought that HIV originated from? Is it likely that HIV-1 and HIV-2 have different origins?
When was AIDS first discovered? When was the most likely first case of HIV? Why might it have taken so
long to figure out the link between HIV and AIDS?
Where is HIV/AIDS most prevalent? Why has the number of deaths due to AIDS leveled off while there
are still more people being infected every day?
What is the main treatment to help delay the onset of AIDS after contracting HIV? How much more time
does HAART give people with HIV?
Make sure you understand the different parts of the retroviral life cycle as they pertain to HAART drug
targets.
Does HIV directly kill the host? How does it destroy the immune system? What happens when T cell
numbers drop very low?
What are two reasons that there is currently no cure for HIV? What are some of the problems in
developing an effective vaccine?
What are the pros and cons of using Truvada as an HIV prophylactic?
What kind of a virus is influenza? How is it spread? Is the circulating strain of influenza the same every
year?
What makes the genome of influenza so unique? How does this contribute to the emergence of new
strains of influenza? What are NA and HA and what role do they have in host specificity? If avian
influenza mostly infects birds, why are scientists worried about it becoming a possible pandemic strain?
What was the controversy about publishing mutations that made avian influenza able to better infect
human cells?
What are some reasons influenza could be used as a bioweapon?
What was the 1918 pandemic? How many people died? How many were infected? What was so unusual
about this strain of influenza? Spanish flu was an H1N1, what new research suggests why some people
are less affected by H1N1 influenza than others?
What are some influenza drugs and what part of the viral life cycle do they act on?
What are prions? Why does it matter how the protein PrP is folded (what property changes when the
protein is misfolded)? Are prions infectious? What happens to normally folded PrP in the presence of
prions? How are prions related to variant CJD? What happens to the brain when infected with a prion?
Is this fatal?
Why did endocannibalism cause an epidemic of Kuru to occur in Papua New Guinea? What is unique
about some people’s PrP who live in Kuru endemic areas?
What is scrapie and chronic wasting disease? Why is scrapie such a concern for livestock breeders?
Are prion diseases always caused by ingesting contaminated meat or other substances? What are some
examples of genetic prion diseases? What is familial fatal insomnia? What happens if the brain won’t
“shut off” over a long period of time?