Testicular immunology
Mumps is a viral disease which causes swelling of the salivary glands and testes. The mumps virus lives in the upper respiratory tract and spreads through direct contact with saliva. Prior to widespread vaccination programs, it was a common childhood disease. Mumps is generally not serious in children, but in adults, where sperm have matured in the testis, it can cause more severe complications, such as infertility.
Mumps rubulavirus
Electron microscopy (EM) revealed that the mumps virus (MuV), like other members of the Paramyxoviridae, has an enveloped virion of roughly spherical or pleiomorphic (variable) shape. Paramyxovirus particles can have sizes ranging from 120–450 nm in diameter.
These particles consist of what is known as a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex: a single-stranded, linear RNA genome coated by nucleocapsid proteins (NP) in association with an RNA polymerase complex of both large (L) and phosphoprotein (P) subunits. It has been estimated that over 2,000 such NP molecules coat the genome along with about 250 P and 25 L molecules.