The viruses that we know the best are those that make us patient – influenza viruses that send us to bed and smallpox viruses that may send us to the grave.
But healthy people are filled with viruses that do not make us sick. Scientists estimate that dozens of trillion viruses live inside us, although they have identified a small part of them. The vast majority is benign, and some may be useful. We do not know the certainty, because most of the so -called human virus is still a mystery.
This year, five universities cooperate to obtain an unprecedented chase to determine these viruses. They will collect saliva, stools, blood, milk and other samples of thousands of volunteers. The five -year effort, called Humanum program With the support of $ 171 million in federal financing, he will study samples with artificial intelligence systems, in the hope of knowing how the human virom affects our health.
“I think it will draw the data we have so far,” said Frederick Bushman, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the program.
the First hints From the human virus appeared more than a century ago. Stool samples analysis, scientists have discovered viruses known as phages that can affect bacteria inside the intestine. Phales also appeared in the mouth, lungs and skin.
Scholars Later found viruses Which hit our own cells without causing any major symptoms. A The vast majority Among the world’s population, they develop cellular viruses, for example, which can colonize almost every organ.
In the early first decade of the twentieth century, the new genetic sequence methods prompted scientists to find more viruses in saliva, blood and stool. Technology also allowed them to estimate the number of viruses in our bodies by calculating copies of viral genes. Each gram of stool, it turns out, contains billions of pharges.
The intestine of each person may house hundreds or even a thousand species of mountains. But when biologists move PersonThey will find many viral species in lost species of others – even when these people are married. The more people who study scientists, the greater the number of carats they discover.
“I expect tens of millions of species,” said Evilian Adinsinz, a biologist at the Kawadram Institute in Norwich.
Human cell viruses have turned into unexpectedly diverse. In 1997, researchers in Japan discovered the blood of the patient A completely new virus family It has become known as Anelloves Viruses. Last month, a Ticket More than 800 new species of nasal viruses have revealed, which reaches the total number of known species to more than 6800.
Some recent studies on human virom raises questions about the definition of the virus. The standard virus consists of a protein shell that carries encoded genes, either in double DNA, cut off by a single RNA. But scientists find that our bodies are also a very small homeland Ruby rings floating.
Scientists are still blind than many human pheroms. Viruses are very small so that they can lie in invisible cells. Some can even infiltrate their genes into the DNA of their host cells, where they can hide for years before repetition.
“The new tools must come completely,” said Dr. Bardis Sapieti, the organizing biologist at Harvard Public Health College.
Dr. Sabti and her colleagues develop an artificial intelligence system that will be published by the Human HIV program to discover hidden features of viral genes.
The researchers will then try to find out what all these viruses do within our bodies. Scientists have traditionally treated fins like predators, killing them without mercy in order to make more copies of themselves. But modern experiences indicate a A more complex relationship.
“They are not in a battle to death,” said Colin Hill, a microbi -microbiome Ireland, a research center in Cork. “They are in partnership.”
In the human body, for example, PHASS usually does not emerge with host bacteria. Bacteria may benefit from their friendly relationships with phases, which can transfer genes from a microbe to another, and may enhance their survival.
This partnership may also be good for our health. Recent studies indicate that PHASS distributes defensive genes that their hosts can use to move gaseous pathogens. and Cellular viruses It may help us defend us against skin cancer.
Dr. Shamdir Dimhiri, a cancer world at Harvard University, and his colleagues found that the cellular viruses of active cells inside the skin cells damaged from the sun. Infected cells are made by viral proteins, which attract the attention of nearby immune cells. They attack damaged cells – and thus may prevent them from applying to cancer.
Dr. Demahri’s studies showed this HPV virusesAlso, it can help destroy skin cells at risk of producing a tumor.
“It is a model of how we think of viruses in general,” said Dr. Dimahri.
