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Belle · **Scientists build polio virus from scratch -** 07-12-02

From the New Scientist website:

Quote:

Scientists have built the virus that causes polio from scratch in the lab, using nothing more than genetic sequence information from public databases and readily available technology.

The feat proves that even if all the polio virus in the world were destroyed, it would be easily possible to resurrect the crippling disease, says Aniko Paul at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, one of the researchers conducting the study.

The result has major implications for vaccination programs that have nearly rid the world of polio. "I think it means you're probably not going to be able to stop vaccinating people even after you eradicate the virus," says Diane Griffin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Paul believes the synthesis method could be applied to other viral diseases. "We feel this could be used for ebola, smallpox, just about anything," she says. This raises the worrying possibility that bioterrorists could use a similar approach to create devastating diseases without having to gain access to protected viral stocks.

However, infectious disease specialists emphasise that these other viruses are far more complex than polio virus and, for the time being at least, could not be synthesised so easily.

Much of the technology needed for this experiment has been around for more than a decade, so researchers expected the experiment to work. "Conceptually, it's not a surprise," says Eric Rubin from Harvard's School of Public Health.

Nonetheless, it is the first time that researchers have generated an infectious agent from scratch. Paul says: "It's important that the scientific world knows that this is possible. If we know about it, we can prepare for it."

Paul and her colleagues used chemical techniques to produce large segments of DNA corresponding to portions of the polio virus. They made one segment themselves, then ordered the rest from a company that routinely machine-generates DNA.

Once they had all the segments, the team pasted the pieces together to produce one long stretch of DNA. They then used a commercially available enzyme to convert the DNA into RNA - the genetic form of the polio virus.

Finally, they added the RNA to a soup made from human cells. This enabled the RNA to use the cellular machinery to create the proteins that complete the virus particles. The result was an infectious agent that could destroy cultured human cells and paralyse or kill mice in much the same way as the normal polio virus.

Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1072266)

Robin Orwant

Worrying, isn't it?

neonwraith · 07-12-02

all science can be turned to darker purpose

it's worrying as they can now reproduce rna viruses

but targetted RNA retro-viruses are beleived to be the next way to treat AIDS and Cancer.

Neon

Belle · 07-12-02

Normally I'd be the first to agree. Knowledge is not, cannot be either good or evil. Only the use to which it's put warrants that kind of judgement.

I'd also heard about targeted viruses being used as treaments - disabled viruses are already used as carriers, so in some ways the more we know about how they work the better.

I think what worries me most is the idea of people putting together other viruses simply because they can, without any real forethought or even purpose. It's not unheard of for even the most careful experiments to produce something far worse than they started with.

I'm probably being pessimistic, but I'm not sure it's actually possible to overestimate humanity's ability to screw things up on a grand scale.

Aeternus · 07-12-02

Quote:

Originally posted by neonwraith
all science can be turned to darker purpose

it's worrying as they can now reproduce rna viruses

but targetted RNA retro-viruses are beleived to be the next way to treat AIDS and Cancer.

Neon

Or cause them.

thefinalw0rd · 07-13-02

It is sort of scary. But, now that we know its possible, then we just know to look for it...

I have heard of the retroviruses being used to treat AIDS and stuff, and it seems pretty promising.

All of this bio stuff, though, its not the nicest thought in the world in a lot of cases...