Rabies is notoriously difficult to treat once symptoms begin, and that challenge starts at the molecular level. Unlike many ...

Viruses display both life-like and non-living traits, which influences how we approach treatments like antiviral drugs designed to block their replication inside host cells.

Viruses that replicate through DNA use the same mechanisms the host cell uses to create its own DNA, a process that includes a kind of "proof-reading" of the genetic material being copied.

The viruses keep getting pushed around by these tails until they reach a cell that hasn't been infected. "Thus the virus can spread quickly to distant uninfected cells without needing to replicate ...

Zika virus is unique among flaviviruses, which also include West Nile, dengue and yellow fever viruses, in its ability to transmit from an infected mother to her unborn child.

When viruses infect a host, they “don’t carry everything with them that they need, and they just hijack things that are already inside the cell” to help them replicate, says Wendy Barclay, a ...

The unsuspecting P2 is lucky to replicate a few times, if at all. In this case, biologists refer to P2 as a “helper” virus, because the satellite P4 needs P2’s genetic material to replicate and spread ...

Known as licensed DNA replication, this controlled process occurs only once each time a cell divides. In contrast, when a virus hijacks a host cell’s DNA replication machinery, it replicates hundreds ...

From this perspective, viruses don't meet the metabolic criteria for life. However, some argue that since viruses hijack a host's metabolism to replicate, they show life-like behavior.