The
article, “Mount Sinai researchers discover how the flu virus tells time” talks
about how long a flu virus takes to replicate itself, contaminate other cells
and spread to other human beings. Dr. Benjamin tenOever, a Fishberg Professor
of Microbiology at Mount Sinai, states that the discovery of the flu virus
telling time can help scientists find a new antiviral drug that can make the
viral clock not function properly. When a virus is in you it can’t stay in a
cell too long or too short. If it doesn’t stay long enough in the cell, the virus
is not strong enough, but if it stays too long, it gives the immune system time
to attack it and kill it. Dr. TenOever predicts, that the virus must have
something to help it budget its time, so it can steal specific resources before
the immune system takes action. Dr. tenOever’s team and him wanted to see how
long the virus will take on multiplying itself and moving on. The result was,
it has about 8 hours to make more of itself and spread continuously before an
antiviral alarm goes off in the cell. Dr. tenOever said the “virus needs 2 days
of continuous activity to infect enough cells to permit spread to another human
being.” Timing is critical. He and his
team’s research discovered the process of timing of the flu infection. “The
virus slowly accumulates one particular protein that it needs to exit the cell
and subsequently spread to other cells, and eventually other humans, just in
time before the immune system is activated.”
Have you gotten your flu vaccine? After reading this article I felt extremely
relieved because I have already got my flu vaccine. Every year it’s important
everyone gets their vaccine but not everyone does. It has been in the news that
there have been long lines for flu vaccines. This affects our community as a
whole. The value in Dr. tenOever’s research is it could provide “a novel design
platform for the flu vaccine.”
Can it be true, can this new antiviral drug, they soon discover
have different ingredients?” My Aunt Cristina can’t get the flu shot because of
her allergies to eggs. Perhaps the timing of the virus can attribute to how the
vaccine is made by eliminating “eggs” in the vaccine.
My family and I have always gotten our flu shots every
year for as long as I can remember. If you haven’t gotten your flu shot yet I
would suggest you do. After reading this article it might encourage you too.
Check the article out!
C - Aware +
ReplyDeleteR - Reflective
A - Reflective
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Final Grade (You may remove this comment at your discretion): Aware +
To improve: The conclusion did not seem to flow from the main body of your article i.e. time sensitivity of virus activity.