Humans and Viruses
Professor Robert Siegel
Ebola, NIAH, niah.naro.affrc.go.jp/disease/ ebola/ebola.html Ebola, www.conspire.com/ current8.html
The viruses that make up Filoviridae are responsible for causing severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates. The two members of this viral family have been identified as Marburg and Ebola with four species within Ebola: Ivory Coast, Sudan, Zaire, and Reston. While Ebola-Reston is not known to cause severe disease in humans, the other three are known to be extremely lethal with mortality rates as high as 88% (Ebola Zaire, 1976).
Molecular Background: Filoviridae consists of a group of viruses that have single-stranded RNA, negative polarity, and monopartite nucleic acid. In addition, their capsids are characterized as having a long, filamentous shape with helical symmetry. These viruses produce seven proteins including RNA dependent RNA polymerase (L), nucleocapsid protein (NP), glycoprotein, and four glycosylated viral proteins (VPs). Furthermore, the mRNAs are characterized as being monocistronic, polyadenylated , and uncapped with one genomic and seven subgenomic positive sense mRNAs.
Profiles of Ebola and Marburg
Recent Findings Since 2002
For a gorgeous National Geographic photo gallery of the 2001 Ebola outbreak in Uganda: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0105/first.html
For more information on filoviruses, see previous Humans & Viruses students' fantastic webpages: http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/1999/yunnie/filovirus.html#PROFILING%20FILOVIRIDAE and http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/2000/character.html
ICTVdB site on Filoviruses: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/ICTVdB/25010000.htm
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