Ebola, Marburg viruses edit genetic material during infection

Medical Press ^ | November 4, 2014

[wtd]

• Ebola, Marburg viruses edit genetic material during infection

  Filoviruses like Ebola "edit" genetic material as they invade their hosts, according to a study published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The work, by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Galveston National Laboratory, and the J. Craig Venter Institute, could lead to a better understanding of these viruses, paving the way for new treatments down the road.

  Using a laboratory technique called deep sequencing, investigators set out to investigate filovirus replication and transcription, processes involved in the virus life cycle. They studied the same Ebola virus species currently responsible for an outbreak in West Africa, and also analyzed a related filovirus, Marburg virus, that caused a large outbreak in Angola in 2005 and recently emerged in Uganda. The scientists infected both a monkey and human cell line with both viruses, and analyzed the genetic material produced by each virus, called RNA.

  [snip]

  "The bottom line is we know these changes occur but we don't yet know what it really means in the biology of the virus," Basler said. There are many aspects of how the viruses replicate that aren't yet understood, he said, "so we need a complete description of how they grow to develop new strategies used to treat the infections."

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

You mean, they redact their own DNA? Holder is VERY interested.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting.

[Rebel_Ace]

One of the things that comes up in “CREVO” arguments is that even a “desirable” mutation would not show up in MULTIPLE individuals in the same time frame in a given population to better insure passing it to offspring. However, a virus can infect a large portion of a population, resulting in genetic modifications that are indeed likely to be passed down amongst survivors.

[null and void]

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your......

(Since all records of obama's past were lost in a tragic boating accident and fire, no one can be certain that the guy in the red circle isn't him...)

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Covenantor]

You mean, they redact their own DNA? Holder is VERY interested.

No, filovirus only have RNA genetic encoding.

[huldah1776]

Wouldn’t those changes have to be made in the sperm and egg not lung or eyeball?

[JimSEA]

“Our study suggests that the Ebola virus is making forms of proteins previously undescribed,” said lead author Reed Shabman, PhD, an assistant professor at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md. Shabman was at Mount Sinai when the study was initiated. “Understanding the products of these viruses is critical to understanding how to target them.”
In addition, he said, proteins produced by the glycoprotein editing site are associated with virulence in animals, “so it’s of great interest to understand how that protein is made, and in as much detail as possible.”
“We infer that this probably contributes to how the virus grows in a person or an animal,” Basler said.

Difference in virility in how contagious the virus is in different phases of the disease could relate to this in particularity with the proteins produced for the shell of the virus. This would certainly explain the facts the Duncan’s family was fortunate enough to avoid the virus but the health workers at the end of his life were not so lucky.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[KoRn]

Well, that sounds just GREAT!

[Thud]

That is a very good point.

"Difference[s] in virility in how contagious the virus is in different phases of the disease could relate to this in particularity with the proteins produced for the shell of the virus. This would certainly explain the facts the Duncan’s family was fortunate enough to avoid the virus but the health workers at the end of his life were not so lucky."

[Rebel_Ace]

"Wouldn’t those changes have to be made in the sperm and egg not lung or eyeball?"

Or the cells that govern their development, sure. The point being, if there are infectious viruses that cause genetic changes to the infected host, then that presents a mutagenic vector for a large segment of a given population during a single lifetime, thereby increasing the likelihood of it being passed on (for better or worse).

This counters the argument that some genetic change that might occur in a SINGLE individual is unlikely to be propagated widely enough to produce significant changes in a population.

It also introduces the possibility that speciation could occur if the change/damage was severe enough. Imagine this:

Some virus infects a population of animals, of which some small percentage is immune. So, no real issue there. For those not immune, some die. For those that don't die, imagine that the genetic damage to the survivor's Gametes are such that they are rendered STERILE, unless they mate with another individual similarly infected. Boom, you now have two groups that are no longer offspring compatible, and speciation has occurred.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[citizen352]

Please let me know if this is what you mean. The disease will stay alive in the new species and grow to a greater strength. Meanwhile it will keep changing and spreading to other species. How long will this process take?

[Rebel_Ace]

"...Please let me know if this is what you mean. The disease will stay alive in the new species and grow to a greater strength. Meanwhile it will keep changing and spreading to other species. How long will this process take?..."

No, that is not what I mean. The point of the initial article is that there exists a class of viruses that actually change the genetic makeup of their infected hosts.

What this means is that at a cellular level, these little bad boys EDIT the genetic sequence that makes you up. A grossly over-simplified example would be something like this:

You are born, and from your mom and dad, you have a DNA sequence of GATACAACATAG. (of course, in real life, this would go on for pages and pages and pages, but we want a simple example)

Then, let's say around age 20, you get infected with one of these mutagenic viruses. AFTER your infection, those cells affected now have a DNA sequence of GATACAATATAG. When those cells divide and copy, they use the NEW, post infection sequence of GATACAATATAG, which is sort of like those cells had THREE parents (your mom, your dad, and the virus).

Now, as another poster pointed out, let's say that your EYEBALL was the principle infection point. Ok, your new eye cells might make you more prone to blindness, or they might even correct your vision, but you will not pass this on.

HOWEVER if the infection also included Testes or Ovaries, then we have a real game changer, because THEN you WILL be passing on these "3 parent" DNA changes on to your offspring, and for all you know, they might grow 6 fingers with this change, or sickle cell anemia, or genius level intellect, or have no visible change at all. But it DOES show that there exists a real world vector for introducing wide scale genetic changes into a specific population, IN A SINGLE ORGANISM'S LIFESPAN. This can cause abrupt speciation, with the example I gave earlier.

[Billthedrill]

The study found new features at a described RNA editing site in the Ebola glycoprotein RNA, which makes the protein that coats the surface of the virus.

Which is, to close the loop, the marker that the immune system looks for to identify the virus. This part of it is essentially a stealth technique. If that modification is close, the immune system may still identify the virus, if not, then the entire immune cascade will have to start all over again, that is, marking the glycoprotein, sending that back to evolve new immune cells that react to it, and proliferating those cells. Meanwhile, the virus is mutating further. If the virus wins the race the patient dies.