(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists have removed a 48,500-year-old virus from permafrost that can still infect cells.
According to Labroots, due to global warming in the future, they can get into the environment and become dangerous to humans.
Approximately a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth is frozen ground. When the permafrost recedes, the organic beings from it are exposed.
It can be soil bacteria, archaea, fungi and other microorganisms. Studies have shown that some of these microbes can be awakened by thawing.
However, there are also viruses in the soil that are still contagious. In 2014 and 2015, experts isolated about 30,000-year-old viruses from the soil that were able to infect eukaryotic cells.
However, new scientific work has shown that Pandoravirus yedoma, which was born more than 48.5 thousand years ago and was in permafrost, also did not lose its virulence.
Under laboratory conditions, he successfully introduced himself into a single-celled creature – an amoeba.
Such viruses can pose a danger to humans, since there is no immunity to them, and there are no drugs for the treatment of such viral infections.
However, experts do not yet know how long they can remain infectious when exposed to air, and whether viruses from the past can infect humans.
For this reason, scientists will need more research to evaluate this potential threat.
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