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Ancient human virus resurrected

Virus from distant past may throw light on role of retroviruses in cancer.

Researchers in France have recreated a 5-million-year-old virus whose remains are now found littered across the human genome. The ancient virus could help us to understand how these genetic remnants contribute to cancer.

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Posted by Nicola Jones on October 31, 2006
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It is scary at how smart you must be to be able to do something so stupid! What if..........

Posted by: Paul meegan | November 1, 2006 05:44 PM

Interesting - but what did it really tell us that we didn't know before? Is this the first and only proof that HERVs are actually retrovirus remnants? Does the awakened Phoenix virus illuminate retrovirus inner secrets that we could not get from existing viruses? Or is this research just a curious exersice?

Posted by: Rasmus | November 2, 2006 08:52 AM

What are you doing?!!! The CDC is worried about the genetic drift of influenza, imagine the differences between our immunity and that of this virus with 5 milion years apart!

"Ever seen the end of War of the Worlds?" Skip to the end you may learn something.

Posted by: Dr. Michael Johnson | November 2, 2006 06:32 PM

Paul Meegan's point has a certain resonance, on a "What if..." level of reasoning. But since this virus had evidently evolved in the past to sufficiently integrate with it's host's life cycle that it's host's reproductive interests effectively became it's own, then low virulance as a disease-causing organism is a high likelihood.

What struck me about the work was the resemblance between this discovery - endogenous retrovirii scattered through the human genome with the (theoretical) potential to recombine and re-appear as free-living virii - and the plots of Greg Bear's "Darwin's Radio" couplet of novels. (I heard rumours that he's got a 3rd in the pipeline). While SF isn't (and doesn't claim to be) science, Bear does have a reputation for keeping his science on the plausible side of Star Trek.

Definitely worth a read if you're raking the bookshops for something to sustain you through a day's travel.

Posted by: Aidan Karley | November 3, 2006 01:42 AM

While agreeing with Paul Meegan, let me add that research on resurrecting fossil viruses perhaps might explain sequence similarity found by Weber et al [Nature Genetics, 2002; 30(2): 141 - 142]...

Posted by: C D Poduri | November 3, 2006 09:49 AM

Fragments of viral code enduring in genome for 5 million years of mutations, recombinations and natural selection should have something in them... It is known that some viral parts are vital for formation of placenta at least in some mammals and removing them from DNA causes miscarriages. May these retroviruses play a similar role elsewhere? It is also known that some viral infections do destroy cancerous cells. One could speculate an underlying combinatorial mechanism - if there are any related patterns in mutations or recombinations, certain mutations or recombinations leading to cancer also may coincide with reconstruction of certain infectious agents destroying these cancerous cells. 5 mln. years should be enough for emergence of protective possibility like this.

Posted by: Viktoras Didziulis | November 6, 2006 05:22 PM

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