Posted on 10/29/2003 1:25:12 PM PST by glorgau
A scientist funded by the US government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of the smallpox virus, through genetic engineering.
The new virus kills all mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.
The work has not stopped there. The cowpox virus, which infects a range of animals including humans, has been genetically altered in a similar way.
The new virus, which is about to be tested on animals, should be lethal only to mice, Mark Buller of the University of St Louis told New Scientist. He says his work is necessary to explore what bioterrorists might do.
But the research brings closer the prospect of pox viruses that cause only mild infections in humans being turned into diseases lethal even to people who have been vaccinated.
And vaccines are currently our main defence against smallpox and its relatives, such as the monkeypox that reached the US this year. Some researchers think the latest research is risky and unnecessary.
"I have great concern about doing this in a pox virus that can cross species," said Ian Ramshaw of the Australian National University in Canberra on being told of Buller's work.
Ramshaw was a member of the team that accidentally discovered how to make mousepox more deadly (New Scientist, 13 January 2001). But the modified mousepox his team created was not as deadly as Buller's.
Since then, Ramshaw told New Scientist, his team has also created more deadly forms of mousepox, and has used the same method to engineer a more deadly rabbitpox virus.
But this research revealed that the modified pox viruses are not contagious, he says. That is good news in the sense that these viruses could not cause ecological havoc by wiping out mouse or rabbit populations around the world if they escaped from a lab.
However, this discovery also means some bioterrorists might be more tempted to use the same trick to modify a pox virus that infects humans. Such a disease, like anthrax, would infect only those directly exposed to it. It would not spread around the world and rebound on the attackers. But there is no guarantee that other pox viruses modified in a similar way would also be non-contagious.
Ramshaw's team made its initial discovery while developing contraceptive vaccines for sterilising mice and rabbits without killing them. The researchers modified the mousepox virus by adding a gene for a natural immunosuppressant called IL-4, expecting this would boost antibody production.
Instead, the modified mousepox virus was far more lethal, killing 60 per cent of vaccinated mice. The addition of IL-4 seems to switch off a key part of the immune system called the cell-mediated response.
Now Buller has engineered a mousepox strain that kills 100 per cent of vaccinated mice, even when they were also treated with the antiviral drug cidofovir. A monoclonal antibody that mops up IL-4 did save some, however.
His team "optimised" the virus by placing the IL-4 gene in a different part of the viral genome and adding a promoter sequence to maximise production of the IL-4 protein, he told a biosecurity conference in Geneva last week.
Buller has also constructed a cowpox virus containing the mouse IL-4 gene, which is about to be tested on mice at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Cowpox infects people, but Buller says the IL-4 protein is species-specific and would not affect the human immune system. The experiments are being done at the second-highest level of biological containment.
Ramshaw says there is no reason to do the cowpox experiments, as his group's work on rabbits has already shown the method works for other pox viruses. While viruses containing mouse IL-4 should not be lethal to humans, recombinant viruses can have unexpected effects, he says. "You'd hope the combination remains mouse-specific."
Why his group's engineered viruses are not contagious is a mystery, he says. It is not, for instance, because the host dies faster than usual, taking the virus with it. But his findings could explain why pox viruses containing IL-4 have never evolved naturally, even though the viruses frequently pick up genes that affect their host's immunity.
Despite the concerns, work on lethal new pox viruses seems likely to continue in the US. When members of the audience in Geneva questioned the need for such experiments, an American voice in the back boomed out: "Nine-eleven". There were murmurs of agreement.
The other nations are out to get US.
And once you get into recombinant viral agents (such as what these guys are working on, or what the Soviets used to research in their lab-cities) you end up playing with what could easily be a global bane if the right (read wrong) set of circumstances came together.
I would not be concerned if they were playing with bacteria ....but genetically modified viruses worry me ....a lot. I have seen the effects of Marburg (a relative of the ebola virus that has similar effects on the human body ....read: bodily fluids oozing from every pore and black vomit ....black vomit is when a person sloughs off the internal lining of their stomach and gut and vomits it forth ......it is black hence the name).
The scientists should know that with the world's citeis being totally congested and transportation between continents a mere several hours that a viral plague would spread like wildfire. And chickens always go home to roost, meaning the US would face this woe as well.
This was detailed in Demon in the Freezer ..... it may come down to just making an islampox and going for it.
America does not have an active bio-warfare program. Unlike Russia ... the name Ken Alibek ring any bells ?
This was something that was accidentally discovered and there is a book called Demon in the Freezer that goes into a lot more detail that this.
It was restarted yes .... I should correct myself. We do not have an offensive weapons biowarfare department. Just defense and vaccinations.
Unless one's goal is to reduce world population to levels mandated by Kyoto protocols, I can't imagine any reason to genetically engineer virii that cannot be immunized against.
The sheer stupidity of this is absolutely staggering. Researchers have also recently exhumed corpses who died from the 1918 flu to weaponize, er, study it. The flimsy cover story is that these researchers are genuinely concerned that a bunch of third-world, towel-wearing terrorists will have the capacity to splice genes and create population slashing diseases, so they need to pre-emptively develop the same thing to guard agaist it...The likelihood of splicing a virus the same way someone else would to weaponize it seems ludicrously small.
Obviously the more likely scenario would be terrorists BUYING some of these things from a lab/researcher making the evil things in the first place.
Offensive research determines levels agent diffusion (like cutting anthrax with silicate powders to make it hang in the air longer), developes new bio weapon systems (airborne ebola), modifies artillery, rocket and strategic missiles for agent delivery.
Defensive bio weapons programs cover detection, epidemiology from a military standpoint, possible treatements and vaccinations. Finally they will work to develop a Racal type isolation suit that can stand up to the rigors of a combat environment.
Speculation only, because I do not work in the field and only know what I have read in the papers and on the Internet, but as an example, anthrax research for defense could include research on vaccines, detection, or other ways to neutralize an attack. Research for offense could include methods for creating very small particles that can carry and disperse anthrax spores without clumping together, or other delivery systems. So, it is possible to conceive of ways to differentiate between research for offensive purposes vs. research for defensive purposes.
The line between them may be blurred, however, if it is necessary to do research on weaponization techniques as a prelude to successfully researching, demonstrating, and testing defensive countermeasures.
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