Swine Flu Virus (H1N1)
What is swine flu?
Swine flu like all influenza A viruses is extremely small been only 100 nanometers in diameter. It is globular in shape with a outer coat made up of a lipid bilayer that is taken from the plasma membrane of the cells of the original host.
Swine flu is made up of proteins and nucleic acids
Within the core of the swine flu virus is region that contains the blueprint for the machinery responsible for attacking and destroying living cells. This central core contains about 3000 matrix proteins (the exact figure is unknown) and RNA genes.
The surface membrane is studded with two types of protein molecules. These are; hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) molecules.
Hemagglutinin is the part of the virus responsible for binding to a cell and injecting it with its contents. And neuraminidase protein molecules contain specialized enzymes that causes an infected cell to release the new viruses.
The meaning of H1N1
The H1N1 characterization of the swine flu virus is derived from the type of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase molecules it possesses. The ability of influenza viruses to change is due to the changeable nature of the (H) and (N) proteins that dot its surface. This continuous changing of the outer protein makeup of viruses is called antigenic drift and it is the reason why new vaccines have to be constantly made for influenza viruses.
How swine flu originated
Swine flu was created through the recombination of influenza viruses from different sources. The exact mechanism by which this came about is still largely unknown. But scientists believe that the influenza H1N1 subtype virus is a new strain that is part human influenza, part avian influenza and two separate strains of swine influenza.
Swine flu is basically a composite of three different types of influenza viruses with human type neuraminidase and swine-type hemagglutinin.
Also point-mutations or missence mutations occurring on the original viral mRNA can add to the novelty of the swine flu virus and further contribute to antigenic drift.