3 ms·

I just learned about virophages a few days ago. Viruses and their relationship to other organisms or viruses is bizarre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virophag

I just learned about virophages a few days ago. Viruses and their relationship to other organisms or viruses is bizarre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virophage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virophage I wonder if virovores could be exploited for medical purposes?

bayesian_horse 4y ago
Probably not. Much easier to use antibodies produced in some way.
maxbond 4y ago
Seems like it'd be super useful for maintaining a virus-free environment in an ongoing manner in a circumstance where they would contaminate your results, but where the virovores wouldn't. Maybe there's a virus that you're able to account for in your methodology that you feed the virovores with, and they stick around and clean up other viruses that get into your culture. Or maybe in an industrial process they could help dampen the spread of viral outbreaks in your bioreactor.
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago
  Co-culture might be fine. But realistically it's probably a lot easier to add neutralizing antibodies or other peptides or chemicals which would block viral infection. For an industrial process it would likely be easier to just genetically modify your organism to be resistant to the virus.
  - maxbond 4y ago
    A nice benefit of the virovore though would be it would evolve to counter evolution of the virii. You could still treat with peptides &c but eventually they'll stop being effective. Against a highly adaptive organism it's probably best to employ multiple overlapping treatments. I'm not 100% sure it's this particular talk [1], but this researcher has a fascinating talk on this channel about using phage therapy in tandem with antibiotics such that bacteria resistant to the antibiotic are susceptible to the phage. Iirc they were able to clear up a life threatening antibiotic resistant infection in a patient's aorta with a single treatment. Genetic modification can be tricky in long-lived cultures, the organism you're cultivating may discard your modifications. There's things you can do to make this more difficult, but I can imagine a really general solution that works for many cultures could be super useful (say, for cultures you're speculating about productizing, but don't want to make too much of an investment in until you've characterized them better). I ran some wild west style, open air algae bioreactors for a while, and I'd fantasize about productizing organisms like this for pest control. Crazy things can happen in that sort of environment; I wasn't around at the time but there was a story about a storm which blew in from the against prevailing winds, carrying some weird kind of rotifer not normally native to that environment, and across the state people woke up to their ponds turning pink. In that kind of environment you're unable to anticipate which organisms will invade your ponds. I think it's possible those kinds of cheap, low-control methods of production will become very important. [1] https://youtu.be/xvC8xME5Zrg https://youtu.be/xvC8xME5Zrg
    - anonymouskimmer 4y ago
      I've known about phage therapy for a while. That's quite interesting in your last paragraph.
logicalmonster 4y ago
There was a 1st Season Episode of Star Trek Voyager called The Phage where a bunch of aliens whose organs were being eaten away by some virus had to continuously harvest fresh new organs from unwitting travelers to stay alive. Is that fictional disease related to the real world virophage?
- QuercusMax 4y ago
  Phage just means "something that devours". https://www.dictionary.com/browse/phage https://www.dictionary.com/browse/phage As far as I can tell, the Phage that the Vidiians suffer from has nothing to do with any real-world illnesses, except maybe something like Leprosy.
  - logicalmonster 4y ago
    In Greek, the word Phage or Fage means "to eat" so that might be the origin. Coincidentally, that's also the name of a pretty rich and thick yogurt, which I assume has nothing to do with viruses.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - xyzzy_plugh 4y ago
      During fermentation, there is most definitely some eating going on.

bayesian_horse 4y ago

Probably not. Much easier to use antibodies produced in some way.

maxbond 4y ago

Seems like it'd be super useful for maintaining a virus-free environment in an ongoing manner in a circumstance where they would contaminate your results, but where the virovores wouldn't. Maybe there's a virus that you're able to account for in your methodology that you feed the virovores with, and they stick around and clean up other viruses that get into your culture. Or maybe in an industrial process they could help dampen the spread of viral outbreaks in your bioreactor.

anonymouskimmer 4y ago
Co-culture might be fine. But realistically it's probably a lot easier to add neutralizing antibodies or other peptides or chemicals which would block viral infection. For an industrial process it would likely be easier to just genetically modify your organism to be resistant to the virus.
- maxbond 4y ago
  A nice benefit of the virovore though would be it would evolve to counter evolution of the virii. You could still treat with peptides &c but eventually they'll stop being effective. Against a highly adaptive organism it's probably best to employ multiple overlapping treatments. I'm not 100% sure it's this particular talk [1], but this researcher has a fascinating talk on this channel about using phage therapy in tandem with antibiotics such that bacteria resistant to the antibiotic are susceptible to the phage. Iirc they were able to clear up a life threatening antibiotic resistant infection in a patient's aorta with a single treatment. Genetic modification can be tricky in long-lived cultures, the organism you're cultivating may discard your modifications. There's things you can do to make this more difficult, but I can imagine a really general solution that works for many cultures could be super useful (say, for cultures you're speculating about productizing, but don't want to make too much of an investment in until you've characterized them better). I ran some wild west style, open air algae bioreactors for a while, and I'd fantasize about productizing organisms like this for pest control. Crazy things can happen in that sort of environment; I wasn't around at the time but there was a story about a storm which blew in from the against prevailing winds, carrying some weird kind of rotifer not normally native to that environment, and across the state people woke up to their ponds turning pink. In that kind of environment you're unable to anticipate which organisms will invade your ponds. I think it's possible those kinds of cheap, low-control methods of production will become very important. [1] https://youtu.be/xvC8xME5Zrg https://youtu.be/xvC8xME5Zrg
  - anonymouskimmer 4y ago
    I've known about phage therapy for a while. That's quite interesting in your last paragraph.

logicalmonster 4y ago

There was a 1st Season Episode of Star Trek Voyager called The Phage where a bunch of aliens whose organs were being eaten away by some virus had to continuously harvest fresh new organs from unwitting travelers to stay alive. Is that fictional disease related to the real world virophage?

QuercusMax 4y ago
Phage just means "something that devours". https://www.dictionary.com/browse/phage https://www.dictionary.com/browse/phage As far as I can tell, the Phage that the Vidiians suffer from has nothing to do with any real-world illnesses, except maybe something like Leprosy.
- logicalmonster 4y ago
  In Greek, the word Phage or Fage means "to eat" so that might be the origin. Coincidentally, that's also the name of a pretty rich and thick yogurt, which I assume has nothing to do with viruses.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - xyzzy_plugh 4y ago
    During fermentation, there is most definitely some eating going on.