“The body’s immune system is a complex network of cells and chemical compounds that help the body to show defense against infections. Foods contain a wide range of immune supportive nutrients, so that our body is able to fight against invading pathogens, including virus, bacteria, and toxins. Firstly, the food sources like carrots, sweet potato, oily fish, papaya, cheese, egg yolks, tofu, seeds, nuts, legumes, and whole grains contain vitamin-A, which is considered as body’s first line of defense to identify pathogens by supporting T-cells. Vitamin-A maintains the structure of cells in skin, gut, and respiratory tract.”
Viruses are perfect parasites. It has been known for decades that once a virus gets inside a cell, it hijacks the cellular processes to produce virally encoded protein that will replicate the virus’s genetic material. Viral mechanisms are capable of translocating proteins and genetic material from the cell and assembling them into new virus particles. Contemporary research has revealed specific mechanisms viruses use to get inside cells and infect them.
An individual viral particle, called a virion, is a far simpler structure than a bacterium. It has often been questioned whether a virus is alive. It is certainly not living in the everyday sense of the word. Virions consist of genetic material—DNA or RNA enclosed in a protein coating. Many viruses, called enveloped viruses, have an additional outer membrane that encloses the protein coat. This membrane envelope is material co-opted from the cell’s own membrane. As the new virion buds out from an infected host cell, it is wrapped by the cell’s bilayer membrane and carries with it any protein that happens to be embedded in the membrane at the budding site. Enveloped viruses are then free to begin a new cycle of infection by fusing their cell-derived envelope with the cellular membrane of an uninfected cell.
Some types of enveloped virus fuse directly to the cell’s outer (plasma) membrane, whereas others are engulfed whole by endocytosis or similar processes and then fuse their envelope with the membrane of the engulfing internal organelle (e.g., an endosome) to gain access to the interior of the cell. In either case, the genetic material of the virus has invaded the cell through the barrier of its membrane, and infection will inevitably follow. Infection can be prevented if fusion of the viral envelope with the cell or endosomal membrane can be blocked. Similarly, if a vaccine can be directed against the viral fusion protein, infection can be prevented. Vaccines against the influenza virus, for example, target the fusion proteins of the virus. ※
Source: Vital Force Wellness / Fredric S. Cohen – “Biophysical Journal“
