human immunodeficiency virus

• Viruses can cause a variety of diseases from common cold and the flu to serious illnesses such as AIDS, dengue fever, measles, small pox and bird flu.. • All viruses infect cells and h

Virus Structure Tutorial

Shuchismita Dutta, Ph.D

RCSB PDB, 2008

• Viruses can cause a variety of diseases from

common cold and the flu to serious illnesses

such as AIDS, dengue fever, measles, small pox and bird flu

• All viruses infect cells and hijack the host cellular machinery for their own benefit

• Learning about the biology and structure of

viruses can help us better understand the

diseases that they cause, their prevention and treatment

• Introduction to viruses – what they are made of, how do they survive and propagate

• Virus structures – shape and symmetric

interaction of proteins, nucleic acids

• Hands-on activities

• List of related resources and additional reading material

• Take home message: The shape and structure

of proteins are specific for their function

Basic Information

2

3

Electron micrographs of viruses

HIV Aeromonas virus 31 Influenza virus

Orf virus

Herpes simplex virus Smallopx virus

What do Viruses look like?

Tailed phages

Are viruses living or non-living?

(A typical virus life-cycle)

http://www.microbiologybytes.com/introduction/structure.html

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Viral-Structure-and-Replication.topicArticleId-8524,articleId-8448.html

Viral Infection and Immunity

Poliovirus and Rhinovirus

August 2001 Molecule of the Month

Building Icosahedral Viruses

What is an Icosahedron?

Icosahedron: a geometric solid with twenty faces Each face is an

equilateral triangle and every vertex of the icosahedron is formed by five triangular faces

Edges 30; Vertices 12; Faces 20

The Marshmallow model

Students make marshmallow icosahedrons

at Princeton Science & Engineering Expo

The Paper Model

Students make marshmallow icosahedrons

at Princeton Science & Engineering Expo

The Story of Dengue Virus

Dengue Virus

• Single-stranded RNA virus

• Causes dengue hemorrhagic fever

• Transmitted by mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti)

• Serotypes (DEN-1, 2, 3, 4)

Dengue Virus

Nature Structural Biology 10, 907 - 912 (2003)

World distribution of dengue viruses and their mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti, (2005)

Life Cycle of Dengue Virus

Nature Reviews Microbiology 3, 13-22 (January 2005)

Structural changes in envelope protein, icosahedral shell:

•Fusion –antiparallel homodimers to parallel homotrimers

•Maturation – conformational change of immature trimers to homodimers followed by

protease cleavage (by furin) to form mature antiparpllel dimers

Maturation of Dengue Virus

Science 28 March 2008:Vol 319 no 5871, pp 1834 - 1837

Nature Reviews Microbiology 3, 13-22 (January 2005)

Molecule of the Month, July, 2008

Maturation

&

Fusion

Possible Directions

for Lesson Plans

A Lesson on Icosahedral Viruses

• Shapes of proteins (Introduction to PDB)

• What is a virus?

• Shapes of viruses

• Building 3-D models of icosahedral viruses

• Answering questions about viruses and

the icosahedral virus models.

• Research on a specific disease caused by

a virus (e.g Dengue Fever)

Vaccines and Antivirals

•Infection, Prevention & Treatment

•Rhinovirus or Flu virus or HIV etc.

Genetics & Mutation

•Evolution in viruses

•Why antiviral treatments

need to evolve too

Biotechnological uses of Viruses

•Protein expressing,

•gene therapy

Transcription/Translation

•How viruses hijack host cells

•Viruses and cancer