Artificial viruses
Many viruses can be obtainedde novo, that is, from scratch, and the first artificial virus
Viruses of many families have artificial DNA orRNA, if introduced into a cell, exhibits infectious properties. In other words, such viruses contain all the necessary information for the formation of new viruses.
This technology is currently used fordevelopment of new types of vaccines. The ability to create artificial viruses has far-reaching consequences, since a virus cannot become extinct as long as its genomic sequence is known and cells sensitive to it are available.
Complete genomic sequences these days2,408 different viruses (including smallpox) are publicly available in an online database maintained by the US National Institutes of Health.
Photomicrograph showing the cytopathic effects caused by herpes simplex virus type 1. Pap test
How viruses are made into biological weapons
The ability of viruses to cause devastating epidemics in humans raises concerns that viruses may be used as biological weapons.
Biological weapons are pathogenicmicroorganisms or their spores, viruses, bacterial toxins that infect people and animals, intended for mass destruction of enemy personnel and population, farm animals, crops, contamination of food and water sources, as well as damage to certain types of military equipment and military materials.
Biological weapons also include delivery vehicles for pathogenic microorganisms and animal vectors. It is a weapon of mass destruction and is prohibited under the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
Additional concerns were raised by the successfulrecreating the harmful Spanish flu virus in the laboratory. Another example is the smallpox virus. Throughout history, it devastated many countries until its final eradication. Officially, samples of the smallpox virus are stored in only two places in the world - in two laboratories in Russia and the USA.
Fears that it might be used asweapons are not entirely groundless; Smallpox vaccine sometimes has severe side effects - in recent years, before the virus was officially eradicated, more people became seriously ill from the vaccine than from the virus, so smallpox vaccination is no longer universally practiced. For this reason, most of the modern population of the Earth has practically no resistance to smallpox.
Methods of using bacterial and viral agents
Means of delivery and methods of using biological weapons, as a rule, are:
- missile warheads;
- aerial bombs;
- artillery mines and shells;
- packages (bags, boxes, containers) dropped from aircraft;
- special devices that scatter insects from aircraft;
- sabotage methods.
The disease in this case can occur inas a result of direct contact with contaminated objects. It is also possible to intentionally leave infectious patients behind during departure so that they become a source of infection.
When bursting ammunition equippedbacterial recipe, a bacterial cloud is formed, consisting of tiny droplets of liquid or solid particles suspended in the air. The cloud, spreading in the wind, scatters and settles on the ground, forming an infected area, the area of which depends on the amount of the recipe, its properties and wind speed.
The problem is that outside the natural habitat and without transmission mechanisms corresponding to its ecological situation, the causative agent of the disease will not be transmitted to people.
Virus budding from the host cell
Features of destruction of biological weapons
When affected by bacterial or viralBy means of means, the disease does not occur immediately; there is almost always a latent (incubation) period, during which the disease does not manifest itself with external signs, and the affected person does not lose combat capability.
Some diseases (plague, cholera, Siberianulcer) can be transmitted from a sick person to a healthy one and, spreading rapidly, cause epidemics. It is rather difficult to establish the fact of the use of bacterial agents and to determine the type of pathogen, since neither microbes nor toxins have any color, no smell, or taste, and the effect of their action can manifest itself after a long period of time.
Detection of bacteria and viruses is only possibleby conducting special laboratory tests, which require considerable time, making it difficult to carry out timely measures to prevent epidemic diseases.
A sign of the use of bacteriological weaponsThere are also used ammunition (intended for it) lying around on the ground and other means of its delivery. In some cases, there is also a sudden appearance or a sharp increase in the number of certain insects or rodents (for example, fleas on the snow).
Modern strategic meansbiological weapons use mixtures of viruses and bacterial spores to increase the likelihood of lethal outcomes when used, however, as a rule, strains that are not transmitted from person to person are used in order to geographically localize their impact and avoid their own losses as a result.
Artificial viruses can be used for good
Scientists from the NPL (National Physicallaboratory), working with partners from the universities of Cambridge and Exeter, as well as from King's College London, have developed an artificial virus to fight superbugs
The rise of superbugs is causing seriousconcern in the medical community as bacteria are evolving to evade existing treatments faster than new antibiotics are being developed. Instead of creating new drugs, a group of experts took a different route.
The authors of the work, based on the principles of architecturevirus, they created a synthetic Ψ capsid protein, which is assembled from a small molecular motif or characteristic sequence of nucleotides (in DNA, RNA) or amino acids (in proteins). The motif was found in human cells. It can recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns on bacterial surfaces.
It is noted that thanks to the combinationIn nanoscale and single-celled imaging, the team confirmed that capsids cause irreparable damage to bacteria. Capsids were equally effective in any of their chiral forms, which could render them invisible to the host's immune system, and would also allow them to kill various phenotypes of bacteria and superbugs without cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo.
Is the coronavirus artificial?
It’s impossible to say for sure yet.We invite you to familiarize yourself with a recent unusual study in which British and Norwegian scientists Angus Dalglish and Birger Sørensen claim that COVID-19 was created in a laboratory.
Dalglish and Sørensen discovered in the virus“unique fingerprints” and evidence that it does not have a reliable source. Therefore, according to scientists, the virus could only appear as a result of laboratory manipulations.
According to them, they previously tried to publishthe results of his research, but were rejected by scientific journals that were confident in the natural origin of the virus. Now, in a number of countries, they are again talking about the need to revise the versions of the occurrence of COVID-19, the publication points out.
Researchers drew attention to experiments carried out in a laboratory in Wuhan between 2002 and 2019 and found that
their Chinese counterparts, some of whom work in conjunction with American universities, have been researching ways to modify the virus to make it more infectious.
The authors of the study believe that the “base” wasTaking a coronavirus discovered in Chinese cave bats and adding a new “spike” to it, the result was the more contagious and deadly SARS-CoV-2.
About what could have been done with the virusmanipulation, says Dalglish and Sørensen discovered a chain of four amino acids that have a positive charge. This allows the virus "to cling tightly to negatively charged parts of human cells, like a magnet, and thus become more infectious," the Norwegian scientist explained.
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