A “zombie” virus frozen in ice is still contagious, resurrected nearly 50,000 years later.

As global warming causes permafrost to melt and ancient diseases to emerge, scientists are discovering more “zombie viruses.”

A late 2022 non-peer-reviewed research paper found 13 new viruses in ancient Siberian permafrost samples, and subsequent research published on Feb. 18, scientists revived ancient “zombie” viruses from the earth. and found that it still infects single-celled amoebae.

Although the likelihood of these viruses infecting animals or humans is unclear, scientists say permafrost viruses should be considered a public health threat.

Permafrost is a layer of land that remains completely frozen year-round, even as it was before human activities began to raise global temperatures. It covers 15% of the land in the northern hemisphere.

But due to climate change, the ice is melting rapidly, revealing an array of ancient remains, from viruses and bacteria to massive mammoths and carefully preserved cave bears.

According to CNN, French professor Jean-Michel Claverie of the University of Aix-Marseille has found frozen strains of the virus that are 48,000 years old in some permafrost regions of Siberia.

The oldest species, dating back 48,500 years, comes from a soil sample taken from an underground lake, while the youngest specimen is 27,000 years old. One of the smaller specimens was found in the carcass of a woolly mammoth.

Some scientists fear that as the Arctic warms due to climate change, melting permafrost could release ancient viruses that haven’t interacted with living organisms for thousands of years. Therefore, plants, animals, and humans may not be immune to them.

Birgitta Evengaard, professor emeritus at the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Umeå University in Sweden, told CNN: “You have to remember that our immune defense is formed through close contact with the microbiological environment. And if there is a virus hidden in the permafrost, why have we had to deal with it for millennia, so our immune defenses may not be sufficient.”

“He suggested that it might be better for us to be proactive rather than reactive. The way to fight fear is to have knowledge.”

How can zombie viruses infect a host after they have emerged?

This is not the first time Clavery has resurrected ancient viruses, or “zombie viruses,” as he calls them. He has been publishing his research on the topic since 2014 and says that few researchers have taken these viruses outside of their own work. these viruses are serious

“This inadvertently indicates that such events are rare and that zombie viruses do not threaten public health,” wrote Claverie and colleagues in their latest research, published on February 18 in the journal Viruses.

In this study, Clavery and his team were able to resuscitate several new “zombie” virus strains and found that each was still capable of infecting cultured amoebae; threatening public health.”

He told CNN, “We see these amoeba viruses as substitutes for every other possible virus that could be in the permafrost. We study the effects of many other viruses, so we know they are there. We do not know.” I’m not sure they’re still alive.” But our logic says that if amoeba viruses are alive, there’s no reason why other viruses shouldn’t survive and infect their hosts.”

Current research on fixed viruses like Clavery’s “zombie” virus is helping scientists learn more about how these ancient viruses work and whether they can infect animals or humans.

Source: Business Insider