Yet as foreign as viruses may
seem, the boundary between them and us is turning out to be remarkably blurry.
We use DNA from viruses to do things that are essential to our own survival,
scientists are finding. Somehow, we have managed to domesticate some of
these invaders.
Endogenous retroviruses first
invaded the cells of our primate ancestors more than 50 million years ago.
Scientists have identified over 100,000 of these fragments in the human genome,
accounting for 8 percent of our
DNA.
To fight invading viruses, a
cell needs to turn on many genes at once. The genetic switches that make this
possible are stretches of DNA next to each gene, which are themselves activated
by proteins.
The scientists edited the DNA
of human cells they grew in a dish, chopping out some of the viral switches
near interferon-responsive genes. Then they exposed those cells to interferon.
The immunity genes, they found, barely woke up.
This one is pretty cool, I wasn't aware that viral DNA made up that much of the human genome. I can understand how certain viruses may have antiviral properties so that they can keep a host. But it had not occurred to me that we may be using some of those properties ourselves. I'm sure with more research there can be more innovative treatments to fight viruses.
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