I understand that viruses can be suppressed by the immune system – but it seems most tend to continue living in our bodies and we only get “sick” from them when our immune systems are weakened.
Why can’t we create a cure that eradicates the virus from the body? Not talking about retroantivirals.
In: Biology
Viruses are extremely small compared to bacteria and the cells in your body. They also aren’t actually alive. They’re just some kind of protein/lipid structure wrapping either DNA or, usually, RNA. they don’t generate energy or move at all. They just float around.
A good way to think of viruses is they are like your side chick’s hair in your apartment. It’s so small and hard to see that you usually can’t get rid of all of it. So when your girlfriend’s over, there’s always the risk that she’s going to find your side chicks hair and quickly realize that neither of you are blonde. You could vacuum your apartment 100 times and still miss it.
The difference is that viruses do fall apart and your body does develop antibodies for the purpose of getting rid of them. It also has other mechanisms to completely eliminate them. Sometimes these mechanisms can take a long time. For example HPV is typically cleared completely within two years. most viruses can’t even bond to any of your cells anyway, but, of the ones that can, most of them will be completely wiped out by your immune system in a relatively short period of time.
However there are certain viruses that manage to evade your immune system for life. This can be for a couple of different reasons. One reason are a class of viruses called retroviruses which infect healthy cells and don’t always destroy the cells. So they can lay dormant and hidden for long periods of time. HIV is an example of this. They’re actually large sections of our DNA which are just inactivated relics from old retroviruses from ages ago. Other examples are viruses that find themselves in places which have very little blood flow so they can keep a population alive without getting wiped out. A good example of this is herpes. It hides out in your nerves which have very little blood flow in that region. Therefore they’re not exposed to a lot of antibodies. This is also how rabies can stay undetected for weeks or even sometimes months before finally making its way into your brain.
Latest Answers