Okay now, let's talk about viruses. Viruses are found wherever there is life and have been around since the plague of Athens (now that’s old) (Papagrigorakis, MJ et al). Viruses are small infectious agents that replicate only inside a living cell. Viruses can infect any type of life form and can cause a wide range of infectious diseases.
Though viruses have a broad range of characteristics that make them ever so changing, two things remain the same. They must contain a nucleic acid genome and a protein capsid that encases the genome. This was the case for a group of researchers that were studying the lung’s microbiome of people who had received lung transplants (Offord, 2019).
While “stumbling” on the viral DNA sequence, the researchers noticed that it was comparable to a pig virus that was not studied very much (Offord, 2019). The sequence was assembled and guess what...two new circular viral genomes were found. These genomes have never been seen in humans before and suspecting that more may be lurking around the research team searched the metagenomic databases for other lung and mouth samples. And more surprises..they identified 17 more genomes that related to the initial two (A.A. Abbas et al.).
These new researchers named this new viral family redondoviruses, Redondo gotten from the Spanish translation of round (at least it's not someone’s name). These redondoviruses were abundant in samples from individuals that had periodontal disease and also critically ill patients in intensive care (A.A. Abbas et al.). But due to its novel revelation, the correlation of this new viral family is unclear to these named diseases.
Scientist are of course happy with this new revelation, but now comes the real scientific tassel. If the virus is not causing any known diseases, should time and effort be put into learning about it specifically or broadly characterizing it into the viral catalog and gaining more knowledge about other known viruses? The debate is still going on so I guess more to come.
Papagrigorakis, MJ; Yapijakis, C; Synodinos, PN; Baziotopoulou-Valavani, E (May 2006). "DNA examination of ancient dental pulp incriminates typhoid fever as a probable cause of the Plague of Athens". Int. J. Infect. Dis. 10(3): 206–14.
Offord, C. (2019, September 1). Researchers Discover New Family of Viruses. Retrieved September 26, 2019, from https://www.the-scientist.com/the-literature/researchers-discover-new-family-of-viruses-66334.
A.A. Abbas et al., “Redondoviridae, a family of small, circular DNA viruses of the human oro-respiratory tract associated with periodontitis and critical illness,” Cell Host & Microbe, 25:P719–29.E4, 2019.
It will be interesting to see what more information researchers will find on this new family of redondoviruses. Since humans who have the virus are asymptomatic, does that mean humans are carriers of this virus? And what animals will this virus effect in the long haul?
ReplyDeleteViruses seem to have a bad "rep" in the scientific community. For years they have been implicated in some of the most damaging human diseases. However, this reputation is not unwarranted. A Noble Prize winning biologist, Peter Medawar, once defined viruses as "a piece of nucleic acid surrounded by bad news(Oldstone, 2009)". The world has seen its fair share of deadly viruses including: small pox, ebola, marburg virus, etc. All these zoonotic viruses at one point were not associated with any well known human diseases, rather infected animals that so happened to be in close contact with humans However, as seen throughout history, these viruses at one point mutated allowing them to infect humans. The mechanism by which viruses mutate is continually being studied. The rate at which a virus mutates is dependent on the type of virus: RNA vs. DNA, whether the virus is single stranded or double stranded, and the size of the viral genome (Sanjuán & Domingo-Calap, 2016). All of these factors contribute to and are predicative of how dangerous a virus can be and how quickly it can mutate to accommodate its surroundings (perhaps in humans?). Although, Redondovirus is not yet associated with any known diseases, it may be just a matter of time. As medical professional (hopefuls), it could be argued that by ignoring this new virus we may be causing future harm. Based on the bio-ethical principle of non-malfeasance, we have the responsibility to cause as little harm as possible. Therefore, this virus, although not yet dangerous to humans, should be examined, studied, and classified if only as a proactive measure. Determining the virus type, structure, and size of genome could be the difference between a serious epidemic and a curable disease process.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Oldstone, Michael. (2009). Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Sanjuán, Rafael., Domingo-Calap, Pilar. (2016). Mechanisms of viral mutation. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 73(23), 4433-4448. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00018-016-2299-6.