Zombie viruses from the warming Arctic - Jean-Michel Claverie скачать в хорошем качестве

Zombie viruses from the warming Arctic - Jean-Michel Claverie

Our research over the last ten years has reliably and reproducibly demonstrated that viruses can remain infectious after tens of thousands of years of freezing (48,000 years) in deep permafrost [1-3]. For obvious health safety reasons, our work was restricted to viruses infecting amoebae, but there is no reason why this conclusion could not be applied to other DNA viruses (classified in the same phylum, such as poxviruses, iridoviruses, or asfarviruses) causing diseases in humans or animals. Ancient DNA traces of these potentially pathogenic viruses have been identified previously (smallpox: [4]) and more recently using metagenomics [5, 6]. That viruses can ""survive"" for so long in permafrost is not at all surprising, since their particles, which lack metabolic activity, are similar to seeds, which are also known to remain 'alive' for long periods in permafrost. Global warming increases the risk of pandemics in two distinct ways: • through the accelerated melting of permafrost (especially at the surface), hence the release of pathogenic microbes of all kinds; • in a more indirect but far more significant way, through the increased accessibility of Arctic regions to industrial activities (in particular mining) leading to a considerably increased human presence. These workers will come into contact with excavated layers of prehistoric permafrost (up to a million years old), and therefore with totally unknown viral contents either directly, or through infected intermediary animals (zoonosis). In a dedicated session, I'd like to introduce you to and gather your ideas and feedback on the feasibility of a project I've submitted to Uarctic, an international consortium of universities with privileged links to the Arctic regions and their indigenous populations. I propose to set up a low-cost circumpolar monitoring network involving the following actions: • Educate the autochthonous populations about the protective measures against the transmission of infectious diseases • Educate the autochthonous populations about recognizing « new » diseases and patient isolation • If a suspect case is reported : Provide a fast communication channel to alert and seek advice from relevant Uarctic experts In contrast to ""One Health"" approaches advocated by major international organizations aiming for a global survey of all environmental viruses prior to their eventual spillover to human (the prediction of which mostly relies on dangerous “gain of function” experiments, or infecting “humanized” animal models), we will focus the surveillance onto sick patients among those frequently/closely exposed to environmental hazard (e.g. miners) or animals (i.e. zoonotic risk). In this way, only new viruses that have already succeeded in infecting humans or that have passed from animals to humans will need to be studied (and be the subject of concern). This considerably reduces the size of the data to be analyzed (and the overall cost), while detecting emerging viruses at the very beginning of their pathogenic journey, before they acquire human to human transmissibility. #Jean-MichelClaverie #scifoo #zombieviruses