Some Australian scientists have genetically altered a virus to cause contraception in mice and they want to field test the virus. The old arguments for using viral warfare against animals are surfacing again.

1. Will the benefits of using a genetically altered virus to contracept mice outweigh the risks of letting such a virus loose into the environment.

What are the risks of letting Ge'd Immunocontraceptive Mouse Cytomegalovirus loose in the environment?

(a)Where is the data proving immunocontraceptive mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) won't transmit to humans and other species?

(b)Field testing should not be allowed until after public consultation and not until after NRA approval. Field testing of RCD/Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease, allowed RHD to escape into the environment before public consultation and before approval of the disease as a Biological Control Agent by the Australian authorities. This made a mockery of the whole approval process and no-one was ever prosecuted for being so irresponsible as to test a live virus out in the open air.

(c) The Pest Animal Species CRC wrote "For a discussion on the ability of viruses to "jump species" see: AJ Robinson (1998). Mutation evolution and host-switching in viruses. In: Rabbit control, RCD: dilemmas & implications: proceedings of the Rabbit Control, RCD: Dilemmas and Implications Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 30-31 March 1998 / compiled by Briaon D.W. Jarvis."

Some people disagree with the paper the Pest Animal CRC is referring to here which implied some viruses evolved with their hosts so they would become less likely over time to change hosts because of adaptation to the initial hosts. Some people believe this paper was irrelevant for the question posed by the paper that was to be answered.

The summary from "Mutation evolution and host switching in viruses" (mentioned above) by AJ Robinson says "The ability of viruses to mutate is well described and is essential for their persistence as they co-evolve or co-speciate with their hosts. It is proposed that co-evolutionary pathways followed by viruses are essentially divergent, and that most viruses today have a restricted set of hosts in which they can replicate. The acquisition of new hosts by mutation appears to be uncommon. For a virus like RCV, which is highly host restricted, the risk of it gaining new hosts by mutation is not zero but would appear to be very low".

I believe that if viruses were so happy to remain with the same hosts, they would not jump species such as SARS, Monkey Pox virus etc. Monkey Pox virus is an interesting study of a virus originating in one species and transferring to prairie dogs through other species. For further reading about Monkey Pox virus visit Monkey Pox.org from CDC release

Pest Animal Species CRC wrote "We are collecting evidence on the species specificity of the sterility protein - for example we have experimentally demonstrated it won't affect rat (rattus) species. "

It is interesting to see that another biocontrol introduced in 1995, the lantana bug, was apparently not tested on fiddlewood trees which it is now attacking in Queensland. This is an example of how humans cannot guarantee that biocontrols will only act as we hope they will. (Quotes from Lantana bug wreaking havoc in Queensland gardens Broadcast: 08/08/2003 Reporter: DAVID CURNOW http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/qld/content/2003/s920390.htm )

DR RACHEL McFADYEN: It was always known that fiddlewood was in the same family as lantana so it would have been tested if anyone, and by no-one, I mean no-one, neither the D.P.I., nor the federal department of Agriculture or the New South Wales. Nobody said fiddlewood’s a plant you ought to test. COLIN CAMPBELL: I do believe, and I say this really with a great deal of thought, that the lantana bug was released far too soon

(d)No one can predict what viruses will or won't infect in the future. The house mouse is a problem to humans but other mouse varieties are not. We have native mice who are part of the food chain. Will they too be sterilised/contracepted? Will humans be contracepted? Pest Animal CRC have not said they will deliberately infect humans with immunocontraceptive MCMV in high challenge doses to see whether humans are susceptible to the virus

(e)Mouse Cytomegalovirus is a herpes virus said to be specific to mice. Have humans been deliberately infected to see if they will become contracepted by the altered MCMV virus? Children play with mice and animals (including pets) eat mice, how does anyone know the altered MCMV will remain host specific. Children play with mice often. Have sick children ever been routinely tested for MCMV? Have other people who work with mice or handle mice been routinely tested for MCMV?

(f)Some researchers may have a hidden agenda. Wouldn't it be nice to control burgeoning human populations without humans having a say in whether they want to be sterilised or not? Some scientists are interested in keeping pest species under control and also have interests in preserving our planet by hoping the human population will not over breed. An example of a scientist with interests in keeping pest species under control who also has an interest in keeping human numbers at a reasonable number is Dr Frank Fenner. Dr Fenner was involved with using Myxomatosis to kill rabbits and is now a patron of the Population Control Group in Australia. Dr Frank Fenner is the patron. Visit their web site at population.org.au

It is not unexpected that some scientists at the highest levels in Australia and elsewhere may feel the impact of human population on the environment might be eased if some of the human population became sterile and unable to multiply. Is this a conspiracy theory or not? You be the judge of this idea yourself.

(g)Cytomegaloviruses specific to some species may be deadly to others.

eg.
1.simian cytomegalovirus

Martin WJ, Glass RT. Acute encephalopathy induced in cats with a stealth virus isolated from a patient with chronic fatigue syndrome. Pathobiology 1995; 63: 115-118.

Abstract: A simian cytomegalovirus-related stealth virus, isolated from a patient with the chronic fatigue syndrome, induced an acute neurological illness when inoculated into cats. Histological examination of brain tissue showed foci of cells with cytoplasmic vacuolization and an absence of any inflammatory reaction. Electron microscopy confirmed the presence of herpes-like viral particles and viral-like products in the brain of an inoculated animal. These findings support the role of stealth viruses in the pathogenesis of human neurological diseases and provide an animal model to evaluate potential antiviral therapy.

2.Stealth Virus Linked to Monkey Virus

http://www.anapsid.org/cnd/diffdx/stealth.html

A virus isolated from a patient diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has been linked through DNA sequencing to a virus which originated from African green monkeys, according to an article appearing in the July issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Virology, by Dr. W. John Martin and his colleagues at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. The results could be significant because kidney cells of African green monkeys have been used for years in the production of polio and other live virus vaccines.

The virus Dr. Martin is studying belongs to a family of novel viruses which he has called "stealth viruses," because they are not detected by the body's cellular defense mechanisms and appear to lack the antigens which normally evoke an inflammatory response from the immune system.

In earlier work reported in the American Journal of Pathology, Dr. Martin found evidence that stealth viruses had DNA sequences in common with the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). But the newly published paper reports a much closer DNA match to the simian cytomegalovirus (SCMV), which infects the specific type of African green monkey used in vaccine production.

Dr. Martin's paper also notes that in 1973, a novel virus known as the "Colburn strain" was isolated from a brain biopsy of a neurologically ill human child, which also showed a close match to the SCMV. Although it was studied in several papers in the 1970s, it was not linked to other cases of human disease until now.

3. http://www.harvard-magazine.com/issues/jf99/mice2.html

In 1981, Norman Letvin '71, M.D. '75, received a call that would change his life. It concerned an epidemic of mysterious deaths, all caused by unusual pathogens and cancers, such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, cytomegalovirus, and rare lymphomas. But the patients suffering from these infections were not humans, but laboratory monkeys.

We now recognize these so-called "opportunistic infections" as signals of the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. But at that time, the disease was just being recognized in humans, the term "AIDS" itself was unknown, and the cause of all these infections was still a frightening mystery.

http://home.mira.net/~antiviv/overs99.htm

MAN INFECTED WITH VIRUS FROM BABOON LIVER: Recent studies of tissues from a man who received an experimental baboon liver in 1992 show that he became infected with a baboon strain of cytomegalovirus (CMV) thought to be specific to baboons. The man had HIV and liver damage from hepatitis B, and he died two months after the baboon liver transplant. These findings highlight concerns about trans-species infection arising from xenotransplantation. Animals raised in sterile environments from birth would be free of environmentally acquired infectious organisms, but they would still have inter-DNA material that, in recombination with human DNA, could spawn new disease entities. (Source: MRMC Report, Nov 99, Vol 12, No. 4. Reuters, 9/30/99)

4. http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/vaccine_awareness/Mothers_and_Vaccines.html

Finally, the issue of monkey virus contamination of the live polio virus vaccines represents the most urgent and striking example of public health risk and information suppression in the vaccine industry. That carcinogenic monkey viruses contaminated, and continue to taint, or oral polio vaccines has been suppressed since the early 1960s. In 1972, on the eve of Nixon's war on cancer, a joint Lederle Corporation/FDA Bureau of Biologics study additionally showed that eleven test monkeys, otherwise destined for polio vaccine production, tested positively for the simian cytomegalovirus (SCMV)--a herpesvirus, of monkey origin, researcher have found associated with patients suffering from chronic fatigue. The continued reluctance of the FDA to act on this matter was revealed in a corporate memo delivered the following year. Sadly, over the past quarter century, virtually nothing has changed. Even in 1996, following reports to FDA officials concerning patients infected with a SCMV-derived virus, no new in-house testing of polio vaccines for SCMV has occurred. Moreover, specific requests for vaccine material to undertake the needed safety tests, at no cost to the government by W. John Martin, M.D.,Ph.D., were denied on the basis of protecting "proprietary" interests.

5.Understanding Herpes VIruses

Herpes viruses

http://www.ourkarnataka.com/Articles/health/herpesviruses1.htm

They are large double-stranded DNA viruses with icosahedral symmetry. The viral DNA core is surrounded by a capsid, which in turn is enveloped by one, two or more concentric membranes containing lipid and glycoproteins.

Human members of this group of viruses include herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, varicella- zoster virus, Epstein- Barr virus, human cytomegalovirus, and the recently discovered human herpes virus, the cause of exanthem subitum. The herpes viruses are also widespread throughout the animal kingdom involving simians, cattle, cats, chicken, etc. Of these, only herpes virus simiae is harmful to man.

The diseases caused by the herpes virus group include

1. Herpes simplex

2. Varicella (Chickenpox)

3. Herpes zoster

4. Infectious mononucleosis (glandular fever)

5. Cytomegalovirus infections

6. Exanthem subitum

7. B virus infection

Herpes Simplex:

Historical aspects:

The term "herpes" is derived from the Greek word meaning "to creep". Herpes labialis or "fever blisters" was the first described by a Roman physician Herodotus. The term herpes simplex was introduced in 1906 and included herpes labialis and herpes progenitalis in the belief that both disorders were the same disease affecting different anatomic sites. Vidal (1873) first demonstrated herpes simplex to be infections caused by human inoculation.

Aetiological agent:

Herpes simplex is caused by Herpes virus hominis (herpes simplex virus- HSV). There are two major antigenic types of HSV;

1. HSV type I, which is most frequently associated with cutaneous, oropharyngeal and ocular infections.

2. HSV type 2, which is most commonly associated with general tract infections and infections of the newborn.

The two types of HSV are morphologically indistinguishable and are closely related immunologically and by DNA sequence homology. However, they can be differentiated by biologic, biochemical and antigenic properties. It is not known why there exist two types. While either one may be isolated from primary oral or genital disease, isolates from recurrent oral lesions have almost always been HSV 1, while those from recurrent genital lesions have been mostly HSV 2. The selective factors may be immunologic since HSV 1 acquired in childhood may induce sufficient immunity to provide relative protection against subsequent genital infection with HSV 1. HSV 2 may have evolved antigenically to the point where this immune response to HSV 1 is insufficient to inhibit infection, a concept supported by the observation that most HSV 1 genital infections occur in people without pre- existing antibodies to either type. The selective factor could also be the ease with which latency is established at the appropriate anatomic site, i.e. the genetic components of HSV 1 and HSV 2 enhance their potential to establish latency in the trigeminal and sacral ganglions respectively.

HSV grows well in experimental laboratory animals such as mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters, tissue cell cultures such as human embryo lung fibroblasts (HELF), rabbit kidney cells (RK), monkey kidney cells, human amnion cells, chick embryo, guinea pig embryo (GPE) fibroblasts and many continuous cell lines like human diploid cell strains and human cancer cell lines.

to be continued....

Next edition: Pathogenesis

Dr. Asha Sandesh.

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6. http://www.trevigen.com/products/anticmv.htm

Mouse CMV antibodies used to detect human CMV

Anti-Human Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Mouse Monoclonal Antibody (clone 2H2.4)



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