{"id":23931,"date":"2024-06-03T02:45:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T21:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=23931"},"modified":"2025-10-06T12:22:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T06:52:42","slug":"virus-like-particles-vlps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/virus-like-particles-vlps\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Virus-like particles (VLPs)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Virus-like Particles (VLPs):<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>VLPs are <strong>molecules that resemble viruses<\/strong> but <strong>lack infectivity<\/strong> because of the <strong>absence of viral genetic material.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They are a very <strong>effective way of creating vaccines<\/strong> against diseases such as human papillomavirus (HPV), <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-hepatitis\/\" target=\"_blank\">hepatitis B<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/malaria\/\" target=\"_blank\">malaria<\/a>, and more.<\/li>\n<li>As they are very similar to real viral molecules, <strong>introducing a VLP<\/strong> into the body will <strong>trigger an immune response<\/strong>, but a person <strong>will not experience any symptoms<\/strong> of the virus they are being vaccinated against.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Once the body has had an immune response to the VLP, it will recognize the virus and <strong>prevent infection in the future<\/strong>, <strong>giving people immunity<\/strong> to that particular virus.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Structure<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>VLPs are <strong>very small,<\/strong> with a particle radius of approximately 20 to 200 nm. This means that they can <strong>easily enter the lymph nodes<\/strong>, <strong>where<\/strong> the <strong>immune system is activated<\/strong> in the case of an infection.<\/li>\n<li>A VLP <strong>consists of<\/strong> one or more <strong>structural proteins<\/strong> that can be <strong>arranged in multiple layers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They can also contain an <strong>outer lipid envelope<\/strong>, which is the <strong>outermost layer<\/strong> that covers a large number of different viruses. This outer layer <strong>protects the genetic material <\/strong>inside the virus particle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Creating a<strong> VLPvaccinecan use bacterial, yeast, insect, or mammalian cells<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>When used as a vaccine<\/strong>, VLPs cause a robust immunogenic response due to their <strong>high-density display of epitopes<\/strong> and the <strong>capacity to present multiple proteins<\/strong> to the immune system.<\/li>\n<li>Most recently, VLPs have been <strong>employed as nanomachines to deliver<\/strong> pharmaceutically active products to specific sites and <strong>into specific cells in the body.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Facts about Nipah Virus:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/nipah-virus\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nipah virus (NiV)<\/a> is a <strong>zoonotic virus<\/strong> (it is transmitted from animals to humans) and can also be transmitted through contaminated food <strong>or directly between people<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses, from <strong>asymptomatic <\/strong>(subclinical) <strong>infection to acute respiratory illness<\/strong> and <strong>fatal encephalitis<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/virus\/\" target=\"_blank\">virus<\/a> can also <strong>cause severe disease in animals,<\/strong> such as pigs, resulting in significant economic losses for farmers.<\/li>\n<li>It first broke out in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998 and 1999.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Treatment<\/strong>:\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>There are currently <strong>no drugs or vaccines<\/strong> specific for Nipah virus infection.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Intensive supportive careis recommended<\/strong> to treat severe respiratory and neurologic complications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is a Virus?<\/h3>\n<p>A virus is an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat. A virus cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself. Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism. Well-known examples of viruses causing human disease include AIDS, COVID-19, measles and smallpox.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/new-method-to-generate-virus-like-particles-to-help-with-developing-antibodies-against-nipah\/article68242931.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New method to generate virus-like particles, to help with developing antibodies against Nipah<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virus-like Particles are molecules that resemble viruses but lack infectivity because of the absence of viral genetic material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}