Defective interfering particles (DIPs) are virus particles that are missing part or all of their genome. Because of these deletions in their genome, DIPs cannot sustain an infection by themselves. Instead, they depend on co-infection with a suitable helper virus. The helper virus provides the gene functions that are absent from the DIPs. The DIP interferes with the helper virus by competing for enzymes that the helper virus requires to multiply. Unfortunately, the interference is not sufficient to eliminate the viral infection, and DIPs are not used clinically. Usually, the small genomes of the DIPs are more efficiently replicated than the full length viral genome, generating a very large number of non-infectious particles. In cell culture, if viral titers (minimum infectious dilutions of a virus) can be evaluated, the generation of DIPs is frequently associated with primary high MOI infections. The second observed phenomenon is a cyclic alternation of high and low infectious titers produced from passage to passage.
von Magnus Phenomenon is the another related term seen in related to Defective interfering. It is first noted in the Influenza virus. Now a more precise information is available informing its from Influenza C group of virus.
Famous quotes containing the words defective, interfering and/or particle:
“Governments which have a regard to the common interest are constituted in accordance with strict principles of justice, and are therefore true forms; but those which regard only the interest of the rulers are all defective and perverted forms, for they are despotic, whereas a state is a community of freemen.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“Modern pictures banish depiction for interfering with the workings of paint.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)