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Nidoviruses: Are we heading toward another pandemic?
Context:
German Cancer Research Center researchers are raising concerns about the potential development of new, hazardous pathogens through genetic recombination among distinct viruses.
More on News:
- Researchers identified 40 such viruses, in various vertebrates, from fish to rodents, including 13 coronaviruses using artificial intelligence.
- These RNA viruses have pandemic potential and can cause deadly diseases through crossbreeding.
- Mammals, particularly bats, are likely reservoirs for these viruses.
- With the new AI-assisted method, researchers analysed 3,00,000 data sets, deriving insightful data simultaneously.
- Experts warn that crossbreeding between viruses may lead to the emergence of a new, modified virus with hazardous traits.
- The German Cancer Research Centre’s virologists suggest these viruses could trigger a pandemic akin to COVID-19.
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) in Nidoviruses:
- Nidoviruses comprise Ribonucleic Acid (RNA), a key component in their composition.
- This natural virus evolution occurs as different virus species generate new pathogens within vertebrates.
- Nidoviruses possess common characteristics that distinguish them from all other RNA viruses and document their relationship.
- Most of these viruses remain unknown to humans due to the focus of scientific studies on viruses causing diseases in humans, domestic animals, and crops.
Nidoviruses
- They are part of the order Nidovirales, representing an evolutionary lineage within positive-stranded RNA viruses.
- Their genome organisation and the relatedness of proteins involved in RNA replication and transcription distinguish them from other viruses.
- They comprise three families: Coronaviridae, Arteriviridae, and Roniviridae, identified as evolutionarily distinct based on RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase sequence analysis.
- Nidovirus life cycle. The infection cycle of nidoviruses starts with the attachment of the virion to the cell.
Emergence of New Viruses through Genetic Recombination:
- Research indicates that simultaneous infection of host animals with different viruses can lead to the emergence of a new virus via recombination of viral genes.
- The nidoviruses discovered in fish frequently exchange genetic material between different virus species, even across family boundaries.
- This virus evolution becomes more pronounced and radical when viruses from entirely different families interact, potentially resulting in fatal and dangerous diseases for the host animal.
- A genetic exchange, found in fish viruses, will probably also occur in mammalian viruses.
- Natural cross breeding processes among viruses are likely to occur in bats, known to carry numerous viruses. Researchers suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus may have originated from bats.
Role of RNA in pathogenesis, coreplication, and determining viral load:
- RNA viruses can have single-stranded or double-stranded RNA as genetic material.
- Viruses utilise RNA-dependent RNA polymerases for genome replication, or in retroviruses, reverse transcriptase produces viral DNA integrated into host DNA by integrase.
- Viral RNA genome undergoes reverse transcription into double-stranded DNA by virally encoded reverse transcriptase upon entry into a target cell.
- Viral DNA is integrated into cell nucleus by virally encoded integrase and host co-factors.
- Integrated viruses may become latent or transcribed, producing new RNA genomes and viral proteins packaged and released as new virus particles.
- These viruses have a higher mutation rate.
- Human diseases caused by RNA viruses include Orthomyxoviruses, Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Ebola, SARS, influenza, polio, measles, HTLV-1, and HIV.
Viruses that Can Cause Pandemic:
Ebola,Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever,MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus), SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome),Nipah,Zika, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever,Rift Valley fever and Monkeypox.
