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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sea Otter who wrote (21888)	3/17/2003 1:14:40 AM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 25898

VIrus's are host specific which means they are genetically geared for one particular "species". Once in a while there will be a virus which cross infects multiple species........Rabies is an example of such a virus'.With the present days knowledge of genetic engineering it is possible to alter various virus's to make them more receptive of different species....maybe. I have seen bacteria genetically engineered to make various chemicals, etc. I have even seen embryonic neural stem cells engineered into mature human neurons...........lots can be done today. These cells are being used in clinical trials in an attempt to correct damage done to the brains of stroke victims by injecting the cells into the patient's brain. Virus's are adaptive and constantly mutate. Even our flu virus changes from year to year because it goes through so many different people and usually changes somewhere along the line. IF a camel virus were to develop an affinity for humans it probably would have to be passaged through humans many times till it accepted the human as a host. Even then it may not be that virulent toward humans as it was toward camels. I once made a mouse and rat vaccine using a virulent virus and passaged it many times through egg embryos...............it became less virulent because it had adapted to the eggs...........however it no longer killed the eggs or the rodents. It was like a flu shot for rodents. LOL Actually that article you posted is a case study that lends support for stem cell research.We need to keep ahead of the "competition" in terms of major scientific breakthroughs and knowledge. I firmly believe that Bush is highly mistaken in stunting stem cell research. However, herein lies the dilemna..............delivery. Most virus's aren't stable for long periods of time without specific growth requirements and available hosts. I doubt that any virus would remain viable for years without being passaged through some living organism. Virus's are obligate intracellular parasites and cannot reproduce, etc without having something to infect like a cell. They use cells for their personal factories of life maintenance. Virus's are kept alive in living egg embryos or in cell cultures which also have specific life sustaining requirements....................it's not that easy to deliver a live virus epidemic due to these factors ( plus other factors as well).