Ancient Virus Ressurrected from Genome

Millions of years ago a retrovirus plagued humanity until natural selection worked its magic and gave us a bit of resistance. Now, modern scientists have resurrected that ancient scourge in the name of anti-tumor research.

FromScienceNOW:

The researchers showed that the newly crated virus could infect avariety of human cell lines and replicate. But its infectivity wasextremely low, perhaps because human cells have evolved resistanceagainst such viral invaders.

"I think it's pretty exciting," says John Coffin, who studiesretroviruses at Tufts University in Boston. Phoenix may shed new lighton how HERVs became part of the human genome and what role they playthere, he says; it may also be a tool to study endogenous retroviruses'
alleged role in tumor progression.

Yet other scientists believe that this could set a dangerous precedent and unleash ancient plagues that we thought would remain forever relics of our evolutionary past.