Virus and Prions

Virus and Prions
Name
Institution

Both virus and prions have genetic material; they involve through natural selection and reproduce other copies. These are all characteristics of all living organisms. However, viruses and prions are not alive because of the reasons discussed below. Viruses are deemed not to be alive because all living organisms are made up of cells while viruses are acellular. They enter the host organism’s cell and hijack cellular equipment of the host organism to copy the information of the viral genetic, make new capsids and assemble everything they need together. They also can’t keep themselves stable but depend on the host organism to be stable1. The third reason why the virus is not alive is that they don’t grow as living organisms; instead, virus manipulates the host organisms’ cells and neither increase in complexity nor size. The fourth reason is that they cannot make their energy; the energy that they use to create new virions comes from the host organism3. However much they can make copies and adapt to the location’s environment with time, they resemble androids and not living organisms. Therefore, viruses take the form of robots that are fully formed to survive.
Prions are normal proteins produced by the body but have undergone abnormal conformation. They are capable of catalyzing other proteins to form more similar abnormal conformations. Like viruses, they are also considered not alive, because they do not possess the cellular machinery to help them grow and reproduce.

They are also mostly dependent on the host to perform most of their survival mechanisms.3 Subsequently since they are formed from proteins with abnormal conformations, they can occur spontaneously. They can also pass from one individual to another through the process of cannibalism, where the tissues of a dead organism are fed on by same species of living organism. They are also more heat tolerant than the virus, which makes them survive to be transferred between species of animals to humans, thus survive through generations but not alive.

References
Chida J, Hara H, Yano M, et al. Prion protein protects mice from lethal infection with influenza A viruses. PLoS Pathogens. 2018;14 (5):1-28. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1007049.
Wu S, Cheng J, Fu Y, et al. Virus-mediated suppression of host non-self-recognition facilitates horizontal transmission of heterologous viruses. PLoS Pathogens. 2017;13(3):1-25. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006234.
Zabel MD, Avery AC. Prions—Not Your Immunologist’s Pathogen. PLoS Pathogens. 2015;11(2):1-7. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1004624.