Scientific Terms

From ME/CFS Wiki

Encyclopedia | Forum | Wiki Main

Don't know what a word means. Check here first, it may be listed.

Contents 1 Anhedonia 2 Ecotropic 3 Endogenous Retrovirus (ERVs) 4 Exogenous Retrovirus 5 Glycogag 6 HERVs 7 Polytropic 8 Pseudotyping 9 Recombination 10 Retrovirus 11 Xenotropic

Anhedonia

• The medical term for the inability or the reduced ability, to feel emotions or a delayed ability to feel emotions.

Ecotropic

• A retrovirus that can reproduce only in the host of the species in which it originated.

Endogenous Retrovirus (ERVs)

• An endogenous retrovirus is one whose genetic material has been incorporated into that of the host. This happens when the genome of the virus incorporates itself into the chromosome of the host's sex cell (sperm or egg) – or its progenitor – and thus, upon fertilization becomes part of the normal genome found in every cell in the body of the host. Over time, the endogenous retroviral genome usually accumulates deleterious mutations rendering it incapable of productive infection.
• Primarily exist in the form of DNA stored in the entire host genome, i.e. including that of the germ cell line, and are therefore passed from one generation to the next.
• Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), now make up 5-8% of the human genome.
• Example: X-MLV (AKA X-MuLV) is an endogenous retrovirus in mice. Please note this is X-MLV is not XMRV.

Exogenous Retrovirus

• Originates outside of the organism of concern or study.
• In the case of XMRV (an exogenous MLV-related virus) it has not yet integrated into a host's germ cell line.

Glycogag

• Glycosylated Gag (Glycogag) - Glycosylated forms of Gag
• Can be incorporated in virions and are required for efficient viral release, spread, and pathogenesis.

HERVs

• Human endogenous retroviruses

Polytropic

• Viruses that infect the original host, as well as other species.
• As in Polytropic MLV-related viruses. (Can infect mice and humans)

Pseudotyping

• AKA Cross-dressing
• Pseudotyping is the process by which a virus clothes itself in the envelope - or parts of the envelope - of another virus. They don't even have to be closely related viral types; RNA and DNA viruses can swap envelopes. In pseudotyping the viral genome isn't changed, but it basically wears pieces of another virus on top of it, changing its structure and sometimes its functioning. Thanks to these borrowed envelopes, pseudotyped virions are often able to infect a greater variety of cells than they could have with their normal envelope.

Recombination

• The swapping of genetic information that actually produces new strains of virus.

Retrovirus

• Is an RNA virus. (They carry their genetic blueprint in the form of RNA)
• A virus which uses RNA instead of DNA to encode its genome.
• Retroviruses are viruses that reverse-transcribe their RNA into DNA for integration into the host's genome.
• They reproduce by transcribing themselves into DNA, by using the enzyme reverse-transcriptase.

Xenotropic

• Viruses that infect species other than the original host.
• XMRV infects humans but cannot infect mice anymore.