"Exploring the Spectrum of Viral escapology at Molecular Level: A fascinating area of immunology."

"Exploring the Spectrum of Viral escapology at Molecular Level: A fascinating area of immunology."

While the biology of viruses and that of the host's immune system are both complex, the governing principle underlying their interaction is simple natural selection.

Natural selection has led to the evolution of the pathogens we confront today, and natural selection has also shaped, over a different time scale, the human immune system.

Viruses have 'studied' immunology over millions of years of coevolution with their hosts.

During this ongoing education they have developed countless mechanisms to escape from the host's immune system.

To illustrate the most common strategies of viral immune escape, researchers have focused on two murine models of persistent infection:

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV):

It being a fast replicating small RNA virus with a genome prone to mutations, escapes from the immune system mainly by two strategies: 'speed' &

'shape change' and

Murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV).

A large virus, complex DNA virus with a more rigid genome and thus the strategies used by it are no option.

The escape strategies of MCMV have been described as 'camouflage' & 'sabotage'.

Thus an attempt has been made in this Booklet to discuss the mechanisms of viral evasion of host defense into some simple categories, which would then allow individual biochemical or immunological phenomena to be placed into some overall perspective.

Dr. H. K. Saboowala.

M.B.(Bom) .M.R.S.H.(London)

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