Are Viruses Alive - Essay Example

? Are viruses alive? Introduction Viruses are microscopic agents that survive only in the nucleus of cells of other living organisms. This implies that viruses live in any living thing both plants and animals. They replicate inside the cells and, in some advanced cases, they feed on the nucleus of the cells thus resulting in the death of the cells. Viruses have unspecified structure of deoxyribonucleic acid commonly referred to as the DNA (Dilcher, 2000). The DNA defines the structure of cells, the fact that viruses have indefinite DNAs makes them capable of changing their structure from time to time thus making it difficult for the body cells to identify and remove them from the cell structures. Among the most notorious virus is the Human Immunodeficiency virus that causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS (Nelson, 2010). This research article therefore employs an effective analysis of this single virus to describe the features of other viruses by extension. The structure of a virus A virus is an organism with a simple structure, this is arguably the smallest organism on earth and due to its small size, the organism cannot survive on its own, it thus requires the cell of a host organism to thrive. Viruses have the simplest structures composed of only three components. These are the nucleic acid, the protein coat and the lipid membrane. The nucleic acid is the most essential part of the virus; it contains the deoxyribonucleic and the ribonucleic acids. The two acids define the virus; they contain all the necessary information for the virus to define its unique indefinite structure and to make it multiply (Theodora, Guoying & Dimitris, 2002). The nucleic acid is lightly dispensed in surrounding plasma all of which are enclosed in a protein coat. This is a light layer of pure protein elements that protects the components of the virus. The protein layer defines the virus. However, being purely protein, the coat lacks definite shape to constitute the definite structure of a virus. The soft coat is highly permeable allowing free movement of molecules in and out of the virus. The structure of the protein further changes according to the protein composition of the host cell, this enables the virus to vary its acidity and alkalinity levels to suit that of the host cell thus permit its survival. Besides the two components of a virus is the lipid membrane. This is a layer found after the protein membrane. However most viruses lack this layer and survive only with the protein layer as the most outside coat. Viruses that lack this final outer coat are generally referred to as naked cells. The lipid membrane performs the edge formation function thus defining the virus. It also lacks such strong elements as keratin and lipid and therefore aids in the indefinite structures of viruses. Virus infection process Unlike other living organisms, a virus cannot survive on its own; viruses have no chemical composition to exist without the assistance of a host cell. Host cells on which a virus mounts itself is referred to as a receptor (Agalioti & Prekh, 2001). Viruses choose their receptor carefully taking into consideration the information in the viruse’s deoxyribonucleic and ribonucleic acid this implies that every virus has its specific receptor. Once a virus gains entry into the body of a living organism, they attach themselves to their respective receptor cells from where they thrive through the rigorous replication process (Dilcher, 2000). The flu causing virus shows preference for the mucus coating cells found in the lungs and other airwaves in the body. The HI Virus on the other hand shows indiscriminate preference to white blood cells in the body of a living organism. Since viruses cannot survive alone, they do not therefore freely exist in the environment but are carried in the body cells of other previously infected organisms. They thus transfer from these organisms to the other through contact of the bodies that possibly results in the exposure of the body cells of the second victim. Flue causing virus transfer from one person to another through the transfer of particles from an infected person, these particles enter the body through the natural openings such as the mouth, nose, ears the anus, the reproductive organs and any other breakages on the human skin. Certain viruses show discrimination of their entry points while others do not, flu causing virus is one such virus that only enters the body via either the nostril or the mouth alone. This follows the existence of the mucus lining cells on these body parts. The HI Virus on the other hand enters the body of people through any opening that leads into a direct contact with the blood cells. This infers than any contact with a bruise or any other skin breakages results in a direct infection. The life cycle of a virus Viruses depend on a cell for survival, they thus stop functioning and replicating only when their host cells die. This happens in case the cell is detached from the body thus dies in the space or when the entire body of the organism dies (Berger, 2002). The life cycle of a virus begins in a new cell through a process referred to as adsorption; through this process, a virus attaches itself onto an uninfected cell to begin functionality. Viruses move freely from one cell to another via the permeable cell membranes, this therefore enable a freely existing virus to access a free cell in the body to begin life. Once this process is completed, the virus gains entry into the cell by injecting its deoxyribonucleic and ribonucleic acid into the cell. This process is known as the entry. As explained earlier, the two acids contain all the information about the virus, this therefore implies that through the injection, the virus interferes with the information previously contained by the cell’s deoxyribonucleic and ribonucleic acids. This results in a new functionality of the cell (Theodora, Guoying & Dimitris, 2002). Once the two acids of the virus gains entry into the cells, the recruit the cell components and structures to come together and begin forming other viruses through a process known as an assembly, this process results in the formation of many other viruses within the single cell. The newly formed viruses eventually pull together and in their combined effort, they break the cell thus killing the cell in search of another free host on which they attach themselves and the entire process begins all over again. The brief life cycle of viruses above explains how the HI virus infects the body of a human and result in the speedy depletion of the body’s defense mechanism. The virus replicates faster than the body cells does and further kills the very cells, this process complicates the process of identification thus removal. Eliminating a virus is more complex and there is no cure to viral infections. The complication arises from the survival tactics of the organism, it lives in the body cell and it also cannot die because it is not alive. Is elimination is only possible through the elimination of the infected cells. Cells, on other hand, have highly permeable membranes, which necessitates communication of components from a cell to another (Agalioti & Prekh, 2001). Once the HI virus infects a body, it spreads to other cells in the body thus eliminating any attempt of removal from the body. The anti-retroviral drugs that the infected are advised to take speeds up the process of white blood replication; this therefore provides the body with a secondary defense mechanism to ward off other opportunistic infections. They thus merely reduce the rate of cell infection giving the body a chance to replace its dead cell but the drugs never eliminate the virus from the body. So, are viruses alive? To argue a case on whether viruses are alive or not requires a detailed analysis of the behavior and life cycle of viruses, compare this to the behavior and life cycle of other living things such as plants and animals, and strike a balance based on the similarities on the two (Nelson, 2010). A similarity would therefore infer to the fact that viruses are indeed alive while a contradiction on the features of viruses from other organism would infer the nonliving aspect of the viruses. Originally, evolutionists explain that viruses occurred from little pieces of the DNA that have the capacity to move across cells. The impermeability of the cells allows for communication of the DNA components thus establishing a communication link between parents and their children. Some also explain that viruses arose from bacterial mutations to develop their strange structure. Viruses possess different features some of which ascertain them as living while others oppose thus resulting in a myriad of discussions with some biologists referring to viruses as organisms at the brink of life (Berger, 2002). Characteristics of organisms Living organisms have distinct features that differentiate them from other non-living things such as rocks. The first among these is the fact that living things reproduce. Reproduction is a means through which organism sustains the longevity of their race. Mature organisms give forth to young ones thus sustaining their life cycle through this process. There are two mechanisms of reproductions namely the sexual reproduction and the asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction is a process through which organisms reproduce after the fertilization of the female ovum by the male cell. This process infers that reproduction does not take place without the fusion of the two sex cells. Asexual reproduction on the other hand is a process of reproduction that takes place in a select few organisms without the fertilization process of the female sex cell. Cronquist, (1981) explains that these two mechanisms occur indiscriminately among plants and animals depending on their features of sexuality. Viruses on their own have a funny form of replication, single viruses divide itself faster thus infiltrating the body of an organism. However, the replication of viruses cannot take place without the support of the cells of other organisms. A virus does not thrive on its own like other plants and animals that replicate through the two mechanisms on their own. The impossibility of viruses to depend on their own and replicate like other normal organism infers that viruses are not alive as other living things (Dilcher, 2000). The HIV virus exhibits this trait, once it gains access into the human body, the virus feeds from the cell components especially the protein components of the cells and uses the nutrients to replicate thus spread into other cells of the body. The HI virus just like any other virus has no definite structure, a feature that it uses to evade the body’s detoxification mechanism. Living organisms have definite structures. This stems out of the definite structure of the different cells that make up tissues thus organs (Dilcher, 2000). The structures of the cells are determined by the formation of the protein components of the Deoxyribonucleic acid of the cell. The DNA is a gene communicating component of cells that allows for communication between cells (Theodora, Guoying & Dimitris, 2002). A virus on the other hand has a gullible DNA structure, one that changes from time to time. This makes it difficult for the cells to identify the entry of these foreign components into the body. The definite structure allows for identification of every organism either plant or animal. This is a primary identification factor for organisms, which further proves that viruses are not living since a virus has no definite structure. Berger, (2002) explains that since viruses live inside the cells of other organisms, they draw their nutrients from the very cells, living organism survive of nutrients to grow and perform other life sustaining functions. Unlike other living organisms, viruses do not die. A normal living organism is born and lives for a while depending on the prevalence of life sustaining factors after which should the factors not favor its longevity, it simply dies. Viruses on the other hand do not have such a definite life cycle (Nelson, 2010). They live provided their host cells live. When the host cell is eliminated out of the system constituting a body and thus dies, they cease functioning too. This is the only time viruses are said to die which analytically speaking is not their death but the death of their hosts. In retrospect, viruses are not alive. Viruses cannot exist on their own as other normally living organisms do. The life of a virus depends on the life of the cell it attaches itself to. They do not eat or ingest any nutrients; they neither live nor die but simply replicates. A virus is therefore merely a strip of information communicating and functionality altering protein component that results in diseases in humans and other living organisms. Viruses do not possess any characteristic that define living organisms apart from the fact that they replicate as other living organisms do, they thus do not categorize as alive (Agalioti & Prekh, 2001). However, viruses are not dead too. They thus quantify to be information communicating entities that assimilate the cells of other living organisms. This is so because the virus only injects its information conveying nucleus into the cell and disrupts the function of the cells to its survival. References Agalioti, T. & Prekh, B. (2001). Ordered recruitment of chromatin modifying and General Gene. New York: Springer. Berger, S. (2002). Histone modifications in transcriptional regulation. New York: Oxford University Press. Cronquist, A. (1981). An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. New York: Columbia University Press. Dilcher, D. (2000). “Towards a new synthesis: Major evolutionary trends in angiosperm fossil records”, proceedings of the national academy of scientists 97(13): 7030. Nelson, M. (2010). "Drug treatment of elevated blood pressure". Australian Prescriber (33): 108–112. Theodora, A., Guoying, C. & Dimitris, T. (2002). Deciphering the transcriptional Histone acetylation code for human gene. New York: Columbia University Press. Read More