Question

How does increase in temperature affect viral fusion and absorption?

Answer 1

For viruses to infect the cell the viral nucleoprotein must have access to the cellular components. For the protein to be released, the viral membrane must fuse with the plasma membrane of the cell. Most of the viruses are absorbed by receptor mediated endocytosis ( Influenza virus ) which include formation of endosomes. Endosomes have low pH which triggers viral fusion and viral replication. Vacoular H+ ATPase and Na+/H+ exchangers play a role in regulating the low endosomal pH. High temperature affects the mRNA levels of these exchangers leading to their low production and translocation leading to a high pH in endosomes which impairs the viral fusion. High temperature has also shown to have decreased the production of IL-6 which leads to viral replication.