Virology

Virology provides information on viruses, which are associated with several emerging infectious diseases in both animals and plants. Most of the viral diseases are not curable and developing treatment strategy for these diseases is the real tough challenge for the researchers. It is possible only when all the information on its structure, replication, mode of transmission and especially methods of cultivating viruses are easily available. This will pay the way for understanding pathogenicity and targets for drug development. Prevention is better than cure suits better with the viral infections. Hence this course is developed to provide knowledge on nature, host and replication of different group of viruses, spread and management of viral diseases. The course also provides information on beneficial aspects of virus, especially its use in medicine and agriculture. The syllabus is designed keeping in mind the recent developments in virology and will be useful to all those who want to learn and update their knowledge on viruses.

Weekly Plan

Weeks

Day

Weekly Lecture Topics

First Week

Day 1

Discovery, nature, origin and evolutionary importance of viruses

Day 2

Structure of Viruses

Day 3

Isolation, purification and cultivation of viruses

Day 4

Viral taxonomy: Classification and nomenclature of different groups of viruses

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Second Week

Day 1

Diversity, classification and one step multiplication curve

Day 2

Lytic and lysogenic phages

Day 3

Regulation of transcription in lambda phage

Day 4

Phage phenotypes, phenotype mixing and phage therapy

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Third Week

Day 1

Principal events involved in replication: Adsorption, penetration and uncoating.

Day 2

Viral nucleic acid and protein synthesis

Day 3

Intracellular trafficking, assembly, maturation and release

Day 4

Host response to viral infection

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Fourth Week

Day 1

TMV and BBTV

Day 2

Herpes, Polio and Influenza virus

Day 3

SV40 and Adeno Virus, Poxviruses

Day 4

Hepatitis and Retroviruses

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Fifth Week

Day 1

Visualization and enumeration of virus particles

Day 2

Physical and biological methods of detection of viruses

Day 3

Immunological and molecular methods detection of viruses

Day 4

Characterization of viral product expressed in the infected cells

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Sixth Week

Day 1

General methods of propagation of plant viruses

Day 2

Purification of plant viruses using centrifugation, chromatography and electrophoresis techniques

Day 3

Methods employed in identification of plant viruses

Day 4

Viruses as biopesticides

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Seventh Week

Day 1

Common cold, SARS, Influenza

Day 2

Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Human papilloma

Day 3

Herpes, Polio, Rabies, Small pox

Day 4

HIV, Hepatitis, Dengue, Yellow fever

Day 5

● Quizzes ● Assignments ● Paragraph and essay questions

Eighth Week

Day 1

Introduction to oncogenic viruses

Day 2

Concepts of oncogenes and proto-oncogenes

Day 3

Understanding human carcinogenesis by using tumor viruses as experimental tools

Day 4

Prevention and treatment of virus induced cancer

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Ninth Week

Day 1

Host specific and nonspecific defense mechanisms involved in resistance to and recovery from virus infections

Day 2

Role of interferon in viral infections

Day 3

Viral Chemotherapy: Nucleoside analogs, reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors

Day 4

History of vaccines especially smallpox and polio. New methods: subunit vaccines, anti-idiotype and DNA vaccines

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Tenth Week

Day 1

Use of viral vectors in cloning and expression

Day 2

Gene therapy and Phage display

Day 3

Emerging and re emerging viruses

Day 4

Viruses and future

Day 5

● MCQ ● Assignments

Eleventh Week

Day 1

Exam preparation and assessment of assignments

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Twelfth Week

Day 1

Assessment at the end of the course, which comprises of 40% of Online or In-term assessment and 60% Proctored end term exam.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5