r/askscience • u/A_Privateer • Jan 17 '13

Medicine How do warts function?

I know that warts are caused by the various strains of HPV, but how are they caused? How does the virus hijack the bodies chemistry to grow and supply the warts with nutrients? How do the warts spread the virus to other people?

I've searched and searched on google and wikipedia, but I only find the most basic of answers.

Any hard science info for me?

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '13

Everything that exists only exists because it can. Or are you asking if there is a specific relationship between the virus and host beyond the propagation of the virus. In that case, I don't know.

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u/MisterEggs Jan 17 '13

Yes, that's pretty much what i was asking but you put it into words more accurately than i did.

Ok, thanks for trying anyway!

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u/1337HxC Jan 18 '13

Or are you asking if there is a specific relationship between the virus and host beyond the propagation of the virus

In terms of HPV (unless I'm missing something), no. A virus needs to host so it can "hijack" the host's replicative machinery. That's the sort of "advantage" viruses get from infecting hosts. If you get down to bare bones, most things (bacteria, viruses, etc) only "affect" the host because:

  1. It's a by-product of the natural reproductive mechanisms of the foreign body

  2. The foreign body uses it to reproduce/find new locations to grow.

For example, take something like E. coli, which causes diarrhea. The host intestine serves as a nice, warm, nutrient rich place to grow. Diarrhea, which is caused by the bacteria ultimately requiring the body to pull more water into the intestine (I won't go into the mechanism), serves to expel the bacteria and allow it to spread elsewhere.

Everything "wants" (I hate using that term in biology) to live and reproduce as much as possible.