What is the virus?

"Viruses are beings on the edge of life." This is the most acceptable definition of viruses at the moment, after opinions differed about them. Is it a form of life´-or-are it organic compounds that can interact with living organisms? This confusion in the definition of viruses comes from its different nature from the rest of the microbial organisms, such as bacteria, which consist of a complete cell that possesses all the mechanisms of life and is able to reproduce and survive as long as the surrounding environmental conditions are compatible with that. As for viruses, they are precise infectious particles that can only reproduce from inside a living cell of one of the other organisms, using the life mechanisms inside this cell that the virus is missing. And viruses of all kinds can infect all kinds of living organisms, animal´-or-plant, and this infection is the basic condition for the multiplication and continuation of viruses. Virus recognition began historically in 1892, when the Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovsky described an infection caused by non-bacterial organisms of the tobacco plant, after he was able to establish the presence of infection after the grinding tobacco leaves passed through smaller filters of all bacteria. However, the major breakthrough in virology began in 1931 with the invention of the electron microscope, which enabled researchers to obtain true images of viruses, opened the door to the development of their biological classification science, and the study of their molecular structure, proteins, and enzymes necessary for their reproduction. Viruses are nanoparticles consisting of a strip (double´-or-single) of DNA, which forms the genetic material of the virus, surrounded by a protein sheath, and some viruses have an outer fatty sheath. Viruses are classified according to the type of DNA that makes up their genetic material (ribose´-or-deoxyribose), and the structure of the DNA strip (double´-or-single). Viruses can produce enzymes that are important for their reproduction process, such as the polymerase enzyme. The life cycle of the virus begins by adhering to specific molecules on the surface of the target cell with the infection, followed by penetration of the virus into the cell wall and then the virus got rid of its protein shell, through specific enzymes, to release the DNA of the virus inside the cell, which begins to use its life mechanisms to reproduce the genetic material of the virus (DNA) ) And its proteins, then these products exit the cell to adhere to another cell, penetrate it and repeat the same process multiple times. There are types of viruses that cause clear pathological changes in infected cells ranging from cell bursting and its destruction to a programmed death over a period of time. There are other types that do not cause visible changes in the affected cells and remain in a latent state within them. The pathological effects of viruses range from acute and chronic infections to the appearance of cancerous tumors. It is worth noting in this context that pathological changes, caused by viral infection, at the cellular´-or-histological level arise either through -dir-ect effects of the virus on the organic components of the cell, which is called "viruses that cause cellular morbidity,"´-or-as a result of interactions between the virus and the immune system. In the person’s body, they stimulate specific pathways, activate specific types of cells, and secrete different chemical media. In this case, these reactions and their results are responsible for the pathological changes accompanying the infection.

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