Why do viruses mutate? Actually, the question we should ask is: how do viruses mutate? Viruses are not consciously thinking beings that pursue a strategy, they do not decide to mutate or how to mutate, and when this happens, it is the result of the mutation to determine whether it will persist in time, andContinue reading “Mutations, variants and quasispecies: the microevolution of viruses”
Tag Archives: mutations
When viruses are the ally: successful gene therapy for retinal dystrophy and beta-thalassemia
The goal of gene therapy is to cure monofactorial genetic disorders, caused by mutations in a single gene. In the sequence of each gene are the instructions for the production of a protein, and every block of three bases (codon) corresponds to a specific amino acid. Alterations in the DNA sequence (mutations) affect the sequenceContinue reading “When viruses are the ally: successful gene therapy for retinal dystrophy and beta-thalassemia”
2019-nCoV: a Virus is born
In the last few weeks, a new virus causing pneumonia in humans has been identified: it has been temporarily called 2019-nCoV (2019 novel Coronavirus) and was detected for the first time in Wuhan, China. The website of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reports that by January 26th, 2020, 2026 cases haveContinue reading “2019-nCoV: a Virus is born”
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