Zombie Watch: Curing Cystic Fibrosis With Modified Viruses

[Thorn]

Zombie Watch: Curing Cystic Fibrosis With Modified Viruses Posted by Evante Garza-Licudine on Monday, February 16, 2009 03:59 pm [No zombies were harmed in the making of this picture, but they should have been.] Teaming up with University of Iowa researchers, scientists at Berkeley are this much closer to ushering in the Zombiepocalypse. This is good news! Why? Because the seemingly benevolent mechanism that triggers doomsday—in movies, at least, where everything depicted is accurate—is a modified gene therapy virus that has cured cystic fibrosis, or at least in cultured lung tissue. By the way, the modifications gave the virus the ability to easily avoid immune system defenses and become “highly infectious.” The rationale is that being able to slip through biological booby traps makes it easier to deliver said gene therapy more effectively. UC Berkeley chemical engineering professor David Schaffer explains how the modifications were made: “We probably conducted about six rounds of evolution in which we infected the lung epithelial cultures in Iowa, they sent it back to us, we recovered the viral sequences, made new viruses and sent them back again,” Schaffer said. “It was iterative rounds of infection and selection for improved infection that finally led to this enhancement of function.” How much did the ability to infect improve? Oh, by about 70,000 percent. Yeah. So, a genetically modified virus that can spread hundreds of times easier than normal viruses, can easily avoid the immune system, and manages to cure an illness that leads to chronic infection? Yeah, we’ve seen this before. Source: http://clog.dailycal.org/2009/02/16/...ified-viruses/

[darth los]

It's only a matter of time before we go to far in our scientific pursuits and let a genie out that we can't put back in the bottle. Whether it's genetic or nuclear man is such a creature that if left to our own devices for much longer we WILL destroy ourselves.

[Thorn]

Yep, it is a scary concept indeed. Man is self destructive, you need only look around to see that. At the local news, at the environment, at the wars all over the world. Something about messing with genetic sequences really frightens me though. I am a logical man and a man of science myself, I do not believe things untill I see it and I am not afraid of man "playing God" what I am afraid of is human error. Someone not knowing enough about what they are doing but pressing ahead for fame, glory, or pride and causing some horrible catastrophe. Modifying a VIRUS? To be MORE effective? This is bright how? This is science fiction turned science fact, and I am sorry but it rarely ends well in the movies...

[bd2999]

Modifying a VIRUS? To be MORE effective? This is bright how? This is science fiction turned science fact, and I am sorry but it rarely ends well in the movies... You need them to be effective so they can do what they are supposed to in the body. Viruses usually infect very specific cell types but can infect others, if you want to insert a functioning gene into a person you have to be able to guarantee as much as possible things are going to go where they are supposed to. Still alot of inheritant risks with it but I dont think it would ever be like in the movies. Someone would have to make something for the express purpose of killing.

[Wyldwraith]

Ok BD: Let's say you're right, and that THIS virus is safely tamed and will always and forever remain neatly controlled. I have a question for you though. Do you think, in general, that it sounds like a good idea for the process to make a virus 70,000x more infectious, and able to COMPLETELY bypass the immune system should EXIST AT ALL? I mean for God's sake. Rogue nations trade scientists with specialties related to WMD production like kids trading baseball cards. Even worse, this PARTICULAR research doesn't seem to have the shielding/security measures of the federal gov't surrounding it. How hard would it be to snatch a few of the key people who understand the full cycle, set up a lab somewhere with the huge amounts of drug money flowing into some terrorist groups these days, and have these kidnapped scientists do something similar to say, Hanta Virus? I'm NOT one of those who worry about the "playing God" angle. Man isn't in any shape to try and imitate God as long as we're still imitating shit-flinging baboons by doing stuff THIS STUPID. All across America you have scientific programs busily working on projects whose absolute worst case scenarios include, but are not limited to: -The creation of a micro-singularity with the capacity to double it's density every 3.2 seconds. -The creation of a self-sustaining fusion reaction, without first inventing materials able to contain such a reaction if it should actually ignite and run away from them. -The introduction of exotic matter into energy environments that do not exist in nature, despite a glaring ignorance as to the potential consequences. Just a few examples of science's reach exceeding it's grasp. I have NOTHING against ANY of these programs btw, EXCEPT for the lack of in-depth investigation into these worst-case-scenarios. Enough dice get rolled and you WILL roll snake eyes after all.

[J0hnnyReb]

Men trying to control nature, lol when will they learn. A virus isn't un-complicated it took nature millions of years to make the 1st one. And millions of years later nature changed the 1st small celled creatures into dinosaurs, mammals and humans, what makes us think that this so called beneficial super virus wouldn't change again on its own? Isn't that what viruses do? All kidding aside, modified super viruses are terrifying, not because of zombies, thats fiction, but bubonic plague wiped out 1/3 of Europe's people, imagine if 33% of everyone you knew was dead.

[Thorn]

Men trying to control nature, lol when will they learn. A virus isn't un-complicated it took nature millions of years to make the 1st one. And millions of years later nature changed the 1st small celled creatures into dinosaurs, mammals and humans, what makes us think that this so called beneficial super virus wouldn't change again on its own? Isn't that what viruses do? All kidding aside, modified super viruses are terrifying, not because of zombies, thats fiction, but bubonic plague wiped out 1/3 of Europe's people, imagine if 33% of everyone you knew was dead. That is a scary thought, I have never much considered what would happen if we saw something like that today. It would be horrible. 33% is a large percentage, I have a big family and just looking at them as a small sample I can not fathom the loss.

[deadkrank]

Remember the virus that was in the Stephen King novel The Stand was a man made virus. Makes you shudder to think that some day that book might come true? Yeah I remember in the book as well as in The Mini series The Stand. The man made virus got loose at an army base. The guy in charge called the gate and told the guard to seal the base.But the guard panicked. Jumped into his car,and ran home and got his wife and kids and fled. And bringing the virus with him. Scary to think that could happen?

[Wyldwraith]

The truly scary thing, After decades of study we still have no effective means of wiping out viruses without harming the infected host. The hoped for anti-viral equivalent to the antibiotic hasn't come about. If we can't master the relatively weak Rhinovirus (which costs America billions of dollars every year in lost productivity from sick days taken by employees) then what justification can we possibly muster to defend playing around with its far more lethal viral cousins? Hell, it wouldn't take a super-virus. The Ebola and Hanta we have right now could kill millions/tens of millions if an infected person sneezed/puked/whatever in an international airport. It continually amazes me that such looming threats can be ignored by world gov'ts in favor of funding trivial pet projects of this or that politician.

[Thorn]

The truly scary thing, After decades of study we still have no effective means of wiping out viruses without harming the infected host. The hoped for anti-viral equivalent to the antibiotic hasn't come about. If we can't master the relatively weak Rhinovirus (which costs America billions of dollars every year in lost productivity from sick days taken by employees) then what justification can we possibly muster to defend playing around with its far more lethal viral cousins? Hell, it wouldn't take a super-virus. The Ebola and Hanta we have right now could kill millions/tens of millions if an infected person sneezed/puked/whatever in an international airport. It continually amazes me that such looming threats can be ignored by world gov'ts in favor of funding trivial pet projects of this or that politician. VERY well said, you aptly put into words my own thoughts and feelings on the subject. I am not sure I am worried about man playing god as some have often phrased it, I know I am worried about man mucking around with things we do not fully understand and have no ability to control or predict. Especially when the bulk majority of the decisions are made by profit driven companies or war mongering nations looking to weaponize medical and technological breakthroughs.

[Edison Carter]

Someone mentioned Human stupidity? What could possibly go wrong? The neighboring critters died. http://www.google.com/hostednews/can...HShBeayzTuzsEA

[Wyldwraith]

That article is a PERFECT example, The company's defense is apparently "Well gee guys, it only happened this one time, and we're really sorry." I wonder how well the Baxter spokesperson's justifications would've been received if the world was in the grip of a Super-Flu epidemic the likes of which has never been seen before? Please to remember, the LAST TIME there was a major flu epidemic we didn't have millions of people trotting around the globe on connecting international flights, with convenient layovers allowing for maximum viral dispersal to the four corners of the Earth. The next time we get hit by a lethal and readily transmissable/highly infectious pathogen it's going to make the casualties of the Great Influenza Pandemic look like a saturday night skirmish between LA gangbangers. These pathogens brought to you by the people more concerned with protecting their "proprietary production process" than in full transparency/maximum safety precautions in the wake of such a hideous error on their part. I mean, after all, what's a couple billion lives compared to their stock prices and quarterly profit projections, right? ::spits on Baxter in complete disgust:: Execs like these guys should be locked in a clean room and have lethal pathogens pumped in through the ventilation. Let them experience Viral Reassortment, up close and personal-like.

[Edison Carter]

air pumped to Baxter Execs Via convector from Geraldo What Did You people DO!?!What did you do?What in Christs name did you do?

[Wyldwraith]

Was just watching a show on Discovery, It turns out that Viral Reassortment is as simple as ONE PERSON being infected with two viruses at once. A huge concern of WHO right now is that someone will get co-infected with both a HP5 and HP3 Virus at once. I forget this moment which is which, but one of them is incredibly infectious and the other has massive killing power. Test results have invariably determined that in ONE viral reproduction cycle (which can take place in seconds to up to three minutes maximum) HP5s and HP3s will produce a highly infectious and lethal hybrid, every single time, even when the viral load of each strain in the host is MUCH SMALLER than what you could expect to see in human beings that were exposed to both in the traditional vectors. In other words, it's only a matter of time until these virus types hybridize somewhere, and that's without scientists doing all the heavy lifting for the virii. Yup, I'm sticking with the message that the Umbrella Corp. taught us. VIRAL WEAPONRY IS A BAD BAD THING!!! Jeez, almost makes me wish for a zombie epidemic. At least there'd be something I could take out my frustration at being doomed to die horribly on tangibly before I died, well, horribly. The idea of dying drowning in my own fluids because some underpaid schmuck-tech in a lab that was cutting corners on safety precautions ::cough cough BAXTER:: dropping a vial, or mailing it to a daycare marked Free Candy or something equally inane pisses me off.

[Thorn]

Wow amazing article and great facts all.