Dengue Virus Life Cycle

This animation shows how dengue virus infects a cell and replicates itself with the help of its host’s cellular machinery.

Dengue virus, which causes the infectious disease dengue fever, is an RNA virus that infects immune system cells. As shown in the animation, the virus binds to receptors on the host cell’s surface, which triggers the cell into taking in the virus. The host cell ends up translating the virus’s RNA into proteins that form a viral replication complex. This complex makes more copies of the viral RNA, which are translated into more viral proteins. Eventually, enough proteins are made to assemble new viruses that can bud off and infect other cells.

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different structures or steps in the life cycle of dengue virus.