SARS - what next? Message Board

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Pastimes : SARS - what next?

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To: Maurice Winn who wrote (599)	6/25/2003 10:19:40 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (2) of 1070

>>Colds are really small viruses, so can hide better and they have a vast pool of infection in which to mutate<< WRONG. 30% of colds in humans are caused by coronaviruses, which are the largest known RNA viruses. Not coincidentally, a SARS coronavirus is a coronavirus. Coronaviruse, like most RNA viruses have the ability to mutate VERY rapidly because their polymerase gene does have a proof reading function and the virus easily recombines because of their mode of replication through sub-genomic RNAs. Class II coronavirus even have part of the hemagglutin gene from flu viruses (which are also RNA viruses). SARS coronaviruses already have picked up the 3' stem loop region from astroviruses (also RNA viruses). The human immune system will be quite busy trying to deal with all the tricks the virus has up its sleeve. That is why people get colds many times over the years. The immunity to one coronavirus produces limit immunity against another. Coronaviruses mutate once every 10,000 nucleotides. Since the SARS cornavirus is 30,000 nucleotides in size, it averages 3 mutations each time it replicates.

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