Any time a novel disease emerges it gets a lot of attention. Today we discuss the history of the coronavirus, where this strain came from, and how dangerous it might be.

Today’s topic is:

Coronavirus:  I’d like

mine with lime, chilled, and on a beach

I first heard of the new coronavirus outbreak a couple of

weeks ago.  First off, in full

disclosure, I did terrible in virology while getting my first degree in

microbiology.  Once something gets so

small that I can’t see it with a normal microscope, I lose interest.

Maybe you had better news coverage than I did, but the

information I first heard wasn’t super specific or particularly

informative.  The first report I heard

made it seem like coronavirus was a newly discovered virus.

What we know about coronavirus

The first coronavirus was discovered in 1965 by Tyrell and

Bynoe and named B814.  Pretty catchy name

huh?  We’ve gotten better at making new

diseases sound much scarier.  Since then,

we have discovered dozens of corona viruses in a wide variety of mammals,

birds, and reptiles.  https://journals.lww.com/pidj/fulltext/2005/11001/history_and_recent_advances_in_coronavirus.12.aspx

Corona in Latin means crown. 

The surface of the coronaviruses is covered with spikes that make it

look like a solar corona under electron microscopy.

The coronavirus is a  ~125 nm round particles.  For those of you like me, for whom the metric

system is still a bit of a mystery, that’s 125 billionths of a meter.  Pretty dang small.  They are known as a positive-sense RNA

virus.  I won’t go any further into what

this means as it bored me to tears in virology, but I’ve referenced several

papers in my show notes that explain it in depth. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747522/

There is still debate as to whether viruses are actually

alive.  Viruses are essentially packets

of DNA/RNA that hijack a cell's machinery to produce more viruses.  Without a host, viruses cannot reproduce.  

Coronavirus is no different. 

The outside of the virus contains receptors that bond with the surface

proteins in the cell.  Once it binds, the

viron starts a process that enables it to become part of the cell wall, barfing

its RNA into the cell cytoplasm.  This

causes the cell to produce viral proteins and RNA.  These are then packaged by the cell using the

Golgi apparatus and other processes which then releases the newly formed viral

particles from the cell. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1306801/

You have likely been infected by a coronavirus as some point

in your life.  Fifteen to 30% of all

common colds are caused by a member of the coronavirus family.  We've all had colds, and while they are

pretty miserable, they are generally pretty minor and stay in the upper

respiratory tract where they don’t interfere with breathing in a

life-threatening way.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416289/ 

Serious coronavirus outbreaks