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Pastimes : SARS - what next? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/11/2004 2:58:42 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1070

>>Why do you think the sequences were made in a laboratory?<< I said the sequences came from a lab (not made in a lab). Here is a little more detail. Labs that study viruses isolate them and store samples. When the sample is stored (frozen), the genetic information is in suspended animation. When the virus gets thawed and begins to grow, for the virus its like "The Time Machine". I comes back to life at a later date. WS/33 was the first human virus isolated. It was from a physician (Christopher Andrewes) in England in 1933. The first author on the 1933 Lancet paper was Wilson Smith (hence the WS name of the virus). In 1940 there was interest in studying the neurotropic effects seen in the 1918 pandemic, so WS/33 was used to infect mice and WSN/33 was isolated from mouse brain (the N is for neurotropic). WSN/33 became popular because it could grow in tissue culture. In this case it was MDCK cells, a popular line established by Madin and Darby from Canine Kidney cells, hence the name MDCK. These cells are used to isolate viruses such as the SARS CoV. WSN/33 can grow in tissue culture because its N is missing a glycosylation site and this allows it to sequester plasminiogen (a precursor to a protease found in plasma), which then cleaves HA to let the flu virus enter a cell. Thus, WSN/33 is particularly virulent because it hijacks a common protease to help it infect cells (these virus are much smarter than most realize). WSN/33 has a number of unusual genetic markers including a 16 aa deletion in NA, a 1 aa deletion in HA, and a mutation in M2 that makes it resitant to Amantadine. These various markers serve as a genetic finger print. In addition, the virus changes over time to survive and these changes also can be used to identify viruses. The viruses isolated in 2004 pigs have different combinations of human flu genes (also identified by the sequence) and each of the human flu genes is over 99% homologous (matches) to WSN/33 and they have the characteristic finger prints identified above. recombinomics.com Since WSN/33 has spent much of the past 70 years in suspended animation in a freezer in some lab, gentically it looks like it did in 1933. As it grows in pigs it begins to chnage again almost all of the WSN/33 genes in 2004 are slightly different than WSN/33 and each other, indicating the infectious are fairly recent and they came from WSN/33. Hence the virus is from a lab (not made in a lab), and since the virus is from 1933, the differences between 1933 and 2004 viruses will be picked up by infected person's immune system and WSN/33 will look very foreign (just like an avian flu gene would look very foreign) and an agressive foregn flu virus can be a very dangerous thing.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/11/2004 11:30:03 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 1070

H5 found in Hong Kong recombinomics.com New sequences bring new challenges.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/12/2004 4:30:15 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 1070

Mq, I believe that veterinary quarantine services in Korea are confirming the WSN/33 deposited at GenBank recombinomics.com I would expect this story to break in a week or two at the latest.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/12/2004 6:55:26 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1070

Now bird flu is showing up further south in Indonesia and getting close to northwestern Australia recombinomics.com

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/13/2004 6:16:12 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 1070

Speaking of vaccines, a sars vaccine trial has start. edhttp://www.halifaxlive.com/sars_vaccine_12132004_9992.php <December 13, 2004 Trials of a vaccine developed to fight the respiratory disease SARS have started today in the US. The disease, first recognized in 2002, was responsible for more than 750 deaths around the world before being contained in 2003. US researchers with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will start trials of the experimental SARS vaccine using 10 volunteers. The initial goal of the small trial is to determine if the vaccine is safe for use in humans. The secondary goal is to determine how effective the vaccine is in fighting SARS. To do this, researchers will look for antibodies and cellular immunity stimulated by the vaccine, focusing on the SARS spike protein. In may, researchers in China were the first to test an experimental SARS vaccine in humans. > Let's hope the "safety" issues do not act to delay introduction of vaccines because while a vaccine might not be fully safe, the lack of protection could cost millions of lives. The FDA and medical guilds have a history of excessive control and caution resulting in high opportunity costs. There is an over-emphasis on bureaucratic process and not enough on urgent development of life-saving treatments. With virulent infections such as sars and humanized H5N1, the bugs can kill a billion people while the FDA dithers over some phase I safety trial which any reasonable estimate could show is unlikely to involve a significant risk. There's a vast opportunity cost if the stable door is shut after the H5N1 bug has bolted. It's like the airlines closing the cockpit doors AFTER the 911 box-cutter hijackers bolted through and airport security people taking nail clippers from grandmothers. Mqurice

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/14/2004 12:01:41 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 1070

Mq, Check out next month's Scientific American on the 1918 pandemic and look at the flu family tree on page 70. I have explained why this is interesting at recombinomics.com I suspect some light bulbs will get turned on.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/15/2004 3:50:33 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 1070

Each day the WSN/33 flu sequences in Korea look increasingly real recombinomics.com Looks like at least six swine on at least 6 farms have the 1933 human flu sequences.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (963)	12/16/2004 7:46:52 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 1070

Mq, As the likelihood on WSN/33 being an artifact decreases, the possibility that the sequences are involved in bioweapons research increases recombinomics.com It will be interesting to see how this sorts out.