An Alternative to Evolution: two viruses combine (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, October 25, 2022, 22:37 (550 days ago) @ David Turell

Newly discovered:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/24/immune-system-evading-hybrid-virus-obse...

"Two common respiratory viruses can fuse to form a hybrid virus capable of evading the human immune system, and infecting lung cells – the first time such viral cooperation has ever been observed.

"Researchers believe the findings could help to explain why co-infections can lead to significantly worse disease for some patients, including hard-to-treat viral pneumonia.

"Each year, about 5 million people around the world are hospitalised with influenza A, while respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections in children under five years old, and can cause severe illness in some children and older adults.

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"To investigate, Haney and her colleagues deliberately infected human lung cells with both viruses and found that, rather than competing with one another as some other viruses are known to do, they fused together to form a palm tree-shaped hybrid virus – with RSV forming the trunk, and influenza the leaves.

“'This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before,” said Prof Pablo Murcia, who supervised the research, published in Nature Microbiology. “We are talking about viruses from two completely different families combining together with the genomes and the external proteins of both viruses. It is a new type of virus pathogen.”

"Once formed, the hybrid virus was also able to infect neighbouring cells – even in the presence of antibodies against influenza that would usually block infection. Although the antibodies still stuck to influenza proteins on the hybrid virus’s surface, the virus merely used neighbouring RSV proteins to infect lung cells instead. Murcia said: “Influenza is using hybrid viral particles as a Trojan horse.”

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"Significantly, the team showed that the hybrid viruses could infect cultured layers of cells, as well as individual respiratory cells. “This is important because the cells are stuck to one another in an authentic way, and the virus particles will have to go in and out in the right way,” said Griffin.

"The next step is to confirm whether hybrid viruses can form in patients with co-infections, and if so, which ones. “We need to know if this happens only with influenza and RSV, or does it extend to other virus combinations as well,” said Murcia. “My guess is that it does. And, I would hypothesise that it extends to animal [viruses] as well. This is just the start of what I think will be a long journey, of hopefully very interesting discoveries.'”

Comment: this is not a true new hybrid species but shows how it might happen.