Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
GENERAL NEWSUnited Press International
January 11, 2001, Thursday
Mousepox variant rings biowarfare alarms
CANBERRA, Australia
Scientists working for the Australian government have created a genetically engineered mousepox virus more deadly to mice than the original virus. Even when vaccinated with a normally effective vaccine, half the mice died after infection with the new virus.
Biological warfare experts are worried that the current international Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, abbreviated BTWC, may not be strong enough to cope with the misuse of the genetic engineering techniques. Governments from all over the world have been meeting in Geneva for six years to address the BTWC shortcomings, but have failed to reach final agreement. Dr. Ian Ramshaw, a viral engineer and the immunologist on the mousepox experiment, told United Press International that inserting genetic material has hazards. His team will publish their research in the February issue of the Journal of Virology.
"It is a potentially vile weapon," Renshaw said.
The mousepox scientists, working for the Cooperative Research Center for the Biological Control of Pest Animals in Canberra, were looking for a way to control mouse populations. CRC director Dr. Bob Seamark told UPI that rodents "destroy 20 to 60 percent of grain crops" in Australia and countries in southeast Asia.
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Seamark told UPI he too is concerned about potential misuse of the technology.
Seamark's concerns were echoed by Dr. Jonathan Tucker, director of Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Calif. The rate and direction of biotechnological advance is "very ominous. It is outstripping the ability and political will of the international community to control these technologies," Tucker told UPI.
Tucker said that many corporations are opposed to mandatory inspections, fearing that proprietary information could be stolen. This fear has delayed treaty negotiations, along with demands from many nations who wish to import dual use equipment, Tucker added.
Dr. Annabelle Duncan, one of Australia's representatives at international arms control meetings and Chief of Molecular Science at CSIRO, an Australian research group that worked on the virus project, said: "At the moment we have a biological weapons convention that has absolutely no teeth."
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Dr. Fred Murphy, professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Calif., Davis, and former director of the National Center of Infectious Diseases, told UPI, "Before the fall of the Soviet Union the Soviets were making plague organisms that were resistant to antibiotics."
There were about 40,000 people involved in production at huge facilities, Murphy said. The Soviets had signed the BTWC in 1972 but did not abide by it.
Okay, I'm done.
Furthermore, the gene diminished the efficacy of vaccines used to protect mice by about half."
These dead players we're looking at all would/could contribute Key Pieces to this technology, correct?
Pest Animal Control Cooperative Research Centre, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems,1 and Division of Immunology and Cell Biology, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University,2 Canberra, Australia
Received 25 July 2000/Accepted 13 November 2000
Genetic resistance to clinical mousepox (ectromelia virus) varies among inbred laboratory mice and is characterized by an effective natural killer (NK) response and the early onset of a strong CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response in resistant mice. We have investigated the influence of virus-expressed mouse interleukin-4 (IL-4) on the cell-mediated response during infection. It was observed that expression of IL-4 by a thymidine kinase-positive ectromelia virus suppressed cytolytic responses of NK and CTL and the expression of gamma interferon by the latter. Genetically resistant mice infected with the IL-4-expressing virus developed symptoms of acute mousepox accompanied by high mortality, similar to the disease seen when genetically sensitive mice are infected with the virulent Moscow strain. Strikingly, infection of recently immunized genetically resistant mice with the virus expressing IL-4 also resulted in significant mortality due to fulminant mousepox. These data therefore suggest that virus-encoded IL-4 not only suppresses primary antiviral cell-mediated immune responses but also can inhibit the expression of immune memory responses.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, GPO Box 284, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. Phone: 61 (02) 6242 1717. Fax: 61 (02) 6242 1511. E-mail: R.Jackson@cse.csiro.au.
Present address: Centre for Biomolecular Vaccine Technology, Discipline of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
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