The flu plaque: A continued discussion of evolutionary mechanisms of viruses

In the past discussions, I mentioned briefly about two or more viruses within a host's genome entering lytic phase, which possibly results in antigen shift, whereby there is reassortment of viral genome giving rise to a deadly virus.

Recently, I found an interesting paper about a pathway of airway epithelial cell infection by macropinocytosis (Ketterer et al, 1999). Macropinocytosis involves the formation of large ruffles in the cell membrane, allowing the cell to engulf large quantities of fluid from its surrounding medium. The influenza virus can be taken into the cell by macropinocytosis (Influenza organism).

Within a host, the process of macropinocytosis may result in the virus particles belonging to the human and animal strains being taken up by the cell, and subsequently lead to infection. The process of antigen shift follows. Macropinocytosis may render the cell vulnerable to infection by more than one viruses.

Citations

1) Ketterer MR, Shao JQ, Hornick DB, Buscher B, Bandi VK, Apicella MA. Infection of primary human bronchial epithelial cells by Haemophilus influenzae: macropinocytosis as a mechanism of airway epithelial cell entry. Infect Immun. 1999 Aug;67(8):4161-70.

2)Sieczkarski SB, Whittaker GR. Characterization of the host cell entry of filamentous influenza virus. Arch Virol. 2005 Sep;150(9):1783-96.

3)Influenza organism http://www.biohealthbase.org/GSearch/Inf_Organism.jsp?decorator=influenza