On 31 Oct 2002, John de Rivaz wrote:
> Hi,
>> Anyone know how the Norwalk virus induces vomiting in its victims? Is it by
I dont think anyone knows...the thing is so far as I know unculturable
(though some related ones are). Most work is done with subcloned cDNAs etc
or naturally propagated infectious material
The lesion you get in the upper intestine would seem to have something to
do as the villi change shape and the microvilli as well...that lowers the
surface area of the gut which could interfere with how much it works,
however the mucosa is intact and more importantly that lesion is seen in
infected but non diahhoreal people. THe proposed mechanism listed in
Fields is one from 1980 suggesting the virus interferes with gastric motor
function for the vomiting etc.
Meeroff JC et al, Abnormal gastric motor function in viral
gastroenteritis.
Annals of Internal Medicine, 1980, volume 92 pages 370-373
You should be able to pull that out of Pubmed on the web at least in
abstract form, or it may be old enough that its on free full text
somewhere - or if you have access to a decent library you can look at it
as it seems to be the paper to refer to, unless you can find something
from late 2000 onwards which changes it.
Tim
When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart
ICQ: 5178568
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