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fharper

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    genetics

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  1. Thanks for the information, CharonY. I suspected that what I was considering was at least plausible, and you've given me some ideas to pursue. Dekan, don't worry. I'll make sure to sacrifice my artistic integrity just enough to ensure blockbuster status. More than that is simply unconscionable.
  2. I'm in the outlining stages of a novel whose plot centers around a fictional virus with some specific features. I'm looking for advice on whether my idea is in the realm of possibility, as well as any caveats or tidbits that will help to give my creation some additional flavor. I am open to any suggestions for changes that would increase the scientific accuracy of my idea. The central premise is that the virus' symptoms and virulence in men and women are very different. When the virus infects men, it it highly virulent, with symptoms similar to hemorrhagic smallpox. It is airborne and highly infectious. In women, the virus infects cells and replicates but results in only mild symptoms, including coughing and sneezing, which can spread the disease to both men and women. After a period of a few days to about two weeks, symptoms disappear in women. Men, invariably, die from the infection. One possibility I am considering is a retrovirus that targets the SRY region of the Y-chromosome to produce the highly lethal strain, or that the higher or lower concentrations of sex hormones in men and women have some effect on how quickly the virus replicates and on whether it goes dormant or overwhelms the immune response. Another possibility that I am pondering is that the virus might go dormant in the cells of women after the initial infection, but be triggered to shed when the infected woman comes into close contact with a man. I'm not sure of a good pathway for this. Andrestonone seems to have some physiological affect on human women, though my impression is that the research is inconclusive. In any case, this triggering would result in the same mild symptoms as the primary infection. Any insight would be great. I plan for my main protagonist to be a female virologist with the CDC who is trying to understand and contain the virus in the early stages of its outbreak, though she and others of her team are ultimately unsuccessful. I could gloss the science over by picking a character who is more distant from it, but I'd prefer not to.
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