16^th International Virology Summit

Virology is the scientific discipline concerned with the study of the biology of viruses and viral diseases, including the distribution, biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology, ecology, evolution and clinical aspects of viruses. Viruses also cause serious diseases in plants and livestock. Viruses have been implicated in a disease that is ravaging our honeybees, threatening natural pollination cycles and thus much of agriculture.  A major branch of virology is virus classification. Viruses can be classified according to the host cell they infect animal viruses, plant viruses, fungal viruses, and bacteriophages. Viruses cause many important infectious diseases, among them the common cold, influenza, rabies, measles, many forms of diarrhea, hepatitis, Dengue fever, yellow fever, polio, smallpox and AIDS. Herpes simplex causes cold sores and genital herpes and is under investigation as a possible factor in Alzheimer's. The study of the manner in which viruses cause disease is viral pathogenesis. The degree to which a virus causes disease is its virulence.

Viral evolution is a subfield of evolutionary biology and virology that is specifically concerned with the evolution of viruses. Many viruses, in particular RNA viruses, have short generation times and relatively high mutation rates (on the order of one point mutation or more per genome per round of replication for RNA viruses). Virus Genomes are very small and they are incredibly diverse and subject to rapid genetic change.

Viruses are smaller and simpler in construction than unicellular microorganisms, and they contain only one type of nucleic acid—either DNA or RNA—never both. As viruses have no ribosomes, mitochondria, or other organelles, they are completely dependent on their cellular hosts for energy production and protein synthesis. They replicate only within cells of the host that they infect. Animal virology developed largely from the need to control viral diseases in humans and their domesticated animals. Viruses, like other infectious agents, enter the animal body through one of its surfaces. They then spread either locally on one of the body surfaces or through lymphatic and blood vessels to produce systemic infection. Iridoviridae and African Swine Fever Virus, adenovirus, Papillomavirus and Polyomavirus, herpesvirus are some of the major viruses causing diseases in cattle. At least one major disease of each domestic animal species except sheep is caused by a herpesvirus, including such important diseases as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, pseudorabies, and Marek's disease. However, there are several approaches to their prevention, control, and eradication. The most generally useful control measure is the use of vaccines.

Diagnosis of any probable viral infection with the help of various tests such as, specific, assorted or conventional tests to identify the causative virus. Multiple methods are in use for laboratory diagnosis in probing the viral infections, including serology, viral culture, antigen detection, and nucleic acid detection. Due to various developments in the technology, we see high-end and quite impressive immunologic and molecular diagnostic tests are developed to provide more accurate results and to detect the viruses- type, number and to identify their pathogenicity as well. This field provides specific recommendations for diagnostic approach to clinically important viral infections.

Viral immunology is simply the study of immune responses to viruses. A prolonged tissue-damaging effect resulting from an immune reaction against viruses is considered immunopathology. Such situations most commonly involve persistent viruses, which are themselves often mildly cytodestructive in the absence of an immune reaction. Chronic tissue damage initiated by viruses can also result in development of an auto reactive and an occasionally oncogenic response.

Antiretroviral therapy refers to HIV treatment that uses a combination of two or more antiretroviral drugs. Antiretroviral therapy revolutionized HIV treatment upon its introduction in 1996. Antiretroviral therapy is an effective treatment for HIV. It does not cure the condition, but it can reduce the viral load to undetectable levels. This means that the virus is not transmittable through sexual activity and a person's immune system can recover. It usually takes around 3–6 months for the viral load to reach undetectable levels.

Infections caused by viruses are universal during childhood and adolescence. Clinicians will regularly care for children and adolescents who present with infections caused by a wide number of viral pathogens. These infections have varied presentations. Many infections may have clinical presentations that are specific to the infecting virus but present differently, based on the age and immunocompetence of the patient. Some children are directly impacted early in their lives when maternal disease results in an in utero infection (cytomegalovirus, rubella virus, or parvovirus B19). Other viruses may infect children in a predictable pattern as they grow older (rhinovirus or influenza virus)

Viruses are intracellular pathogens that have evolved many devious strategies to evade host immune responses and, as a consequence, have plagued human health throughout history. Combating viral diseases with vaccines or antiviral drugs, or both, is a constant challenge. Even when successful strategies are discovered and employed, the high rate of genetic change exhibited by many viruses, particularly RNA viruses, often enables drug resistance or vaccine escape. This is compounded by the periodic emergence of new viral pathogens.

Vaccines have been among the most effective health approach for protecting the individual against viral disease, with two of worlds successful vaccine being against small pox and poliovirus. Viral vaccines is a combination of inactivated viruses and activated viruses. Inactivated or killed viral vaccines contain viruses, they do not have ability to replicate and to bring about a response it contains an antigen. Activated or live vaccines contain the live form of the virus. Currently, Virus like particles organizes a new vaccine concept. Such particles consist of self-assembled structural proteins from the virus which can elicit an immune response but as they lack the genetic material from the virus are safer vaccines, research going on the rational development of a triple-layered virus like particle vaccine against rotavirus using the baculovirus insect cell system as production platform.

The epidemiology of plant virus diseases concerns the cyclical development of virus diseases within plant populations in time and space. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a positive-sense single stranded RNA virus that infects a wide range of plants, especially tobacco and other members of the family Solanaceae. In the viral life cycle, viral entry is the emergent stage of infection, as the virus invades with the host cell and intrudes viral material into the cell.

Viral oncology is a subdivision of oncology,in these it is concerned with treatment of  human cancers /tumors with virus particles. Approximately 20% of all cancers worldwide results from chronic infections, in specific, up to 15% of human cancers is characterized by a viral aetiology with higher incidence in Developing Countries. Certainly, the infectious nature of specific tumors has important implications in their prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. In the 21st Century, the research on viral oncology field continues to be dynamic, with new significant and original studies on viral oncogenesis and as a translational research from virology for the treatment of cancer.

The human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes HIV infection and AIDS. HIV diagnosis is done by testing your blood or saliva for antibodies to the virus. HIV/AIDS clinical trials are research studies done to have a better approach, distinguish, or treat HIV/AIDS. Clinical trials are the predominant way to determine if new medical approaches to HIV/AIDS are safe and effective in people.

Recently one of the most common viral infections are the respiratory tract infections. Respiratory tract infections are including with the infection of sinuses, throat, airways or lungs. The respiratory tract infections (RTI) are generally classified in two subdivisions as Upper Respiratory tract infections(URTI) and Lower Respiratory tract infections (LRTI). The viruses which are associated with respiratory disorders these are adenovirus, parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, coronavirus, Coxsackie virus, human metapneumovirus.

Viral gastroenteritis is an intestinal infection marked by watery diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, nausea or vomiting, and sometimes fever. The most common way to develop viral gastroenteritis — often called stomach flu —is through contact with an infected person or by ingesting contaminated food or water. If you're otherwise healthy, you'll likely recover without complications. But for infants, older adults and people with compromised immune systems, viral gastroenteritis can be deadly. There's no effective treatment for viral gastroenteritis, so prevention is key. In addition to avoiding food and water that may be contaminated, thorough and frequent hand-washings are your best defense.

Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. Many illnesses and conditions can cause inflammation of the liver, for example, drugs, alcohol, chemicals, and autoimmune diseases. Many viruses, for example, the virus causing mononucleosis and the cytomegalovirus, can inflame the liver. Most viruses, however, do not attack primarily the liver; the liver is just one of several organs that the viruses affect. There are several hepatitis viruses; they have been named types A, B, C, D, E, F (not confirmed), and G. The most common hepatitis viruses are types A, B, and C. Reference to the hepatitis viruses often occurs in an abbreviated form (for example, HAV, HBV, HCV represent hepatitis viruses A, B, and C, respectively.

Neurological viral diseases are the most important field that signifies the connection of clinical neuroscience, virology, immunology, and molecular biology. The main target of this field is to investigate the viruses which can infect the nervous system. Without this there is an additional study of this division, the use of some viruses to trace neuroanatomical pathways, for gene therapy, and to eliminate detrimental populations of neural cells.

Currently, molecular studies on replication, assembly, and host interactions of insect viruses have contributed enormously to molecular, cellular, organismal biology. The ease with which many insect viruses are propagated in cell cultures or live animals, the high yields virus particles or virus encoded macromolecules and the simplicity with which many insect viruses can be genetically manipulated represent just a few experimental advantages provided by these pathogens. 

Viral epidemiology is concerned with study of incidence and spread of viruses in population over time. Host, virus and environmental factors are monitored to determine the dynamics of viral infections, the ultimate goal of which is to devise intervention strategies.

The study of parasites that multiply inside bacteria by making use of the host biosynthetic machinery is known as bacterial virology. Bacteriophages are the viruses that infect and replicate in bacteria. Since the early 1970s, bacteria have continued to develop resistance to antibiotics such as penicillin, and this has led to a renewed interest in the use of bacteriophages to treat serious infections.

It deals with viruses that infect fungi are known as Mycoviruses.  Mycoviruses have double-stranded RNA genomes and isometric particles, but about 30% of them have positive sense and single-stranded RNA genomes, to be a  true Mycoviruses, they must have an ability to be transmitted ( in other words be able to infect other healthy fungi)

Current research in virology includes the investigation of mechanism of HIV replication and pathogenesis. Other research involves chronic and latent infections caused by viruses such as Epstein-Barr and Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpes virus and herpes simplex and the retrovirus. Scientists are also studying viral host interactions along with the mechanism of viral induced cellular transformation. Drug-drug interactions happen when a drug interacts, or meddles, with another drug. Change the way either of the drug demonstration in the body, or cause sudden reactions. The drug included can be doctor prescribed solutions, over-the-counter meds and even vitamins and normal items.

Pure Microbiology provides a broad platform of a large plethora of research and plenty of new insights into different areas of Microbiology. Different branches of Microbiology include mycology, Virology, Immunology, infectious diseases, bacteriology, nematology, parasitology, etc., the antibiotics are the agents used against pathogenic bacteria, either orally or paternally.