Horsepox brought to life in the laboratory

The poxvirus was considered eradicated. Now a Canadian research team has succeeded in recreating the horsepox virus in the laboratory. A use as a bioweap is not excluded, said Andreas Nitsche from the Robert Koch Institute in the Dlf. But there are vaccination and therapy possibilities.

Uli Blumenthal: A team around the Canadian microbiologist David Evans from the University of Alberta has brought the horsepox virus back to life. For this, the Canadian researchers assembled the genome of the virus from artificially produced building blocks in the laboratory. The inheritance coupons, which were needed, were received by a Regensburg company by mail. The researchers then shed the cells infected with another harmless poxvirus.

To date, this has been theoretically feasible to produce poxviruses artificially. Now it has actually succeeded. And what does that mean? Is the cat out of the bag? I asked Andreas Nitsche from the Center for Biological Hazards and Special Patients at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.

Andreas Nitsche: The technologies that Professor Evans has now applied to both the synthesis of DNA and the introduction into cells to reproduce new viral particles, these technologies have existed for many years, but are not yet addressed to this question "revitalization Of poxviruses ". For science, this now means that theoretically possible experiments have been carried out in practice and confirm that what has been thought to be feasible theoretically - in the special case of smallpox.

It is, of course, the case that the pathogen, the variola viruses, are regarded as extinguished, and the discussion about the final destruction of the poxviruses is thus given new facets because, according to the former opinion, the destruction would have led to the final eradication of these viruses. Now you know that the destruction of existing virus docks in the two WHO Collaborating Center does not necessarily mean that these viruses will never reappear.
All other virus forms can be produced

Blumenthal: That means, one could produce not only artificially chicken poxviruses, but all other forms of virus also, so also dangerous for human beings.

Nitsche: Yes, that is correct.

Blumenthal: And what would that mean in terms of technical know-how, so how great is the use that would have to be done in a laboratory to produce such poxviruses? Six months, Evans has now needed, less than 100,000 euros in material - is this the price, so to say, the return of smallpox?

Nitsche: Professor Evans is, of course, a proven poxvirologe, a molecular biologist who certainly has above-average knowledge in the field of virology. In principle, however, it is described in such a way that a master in a biology science has the necessary knowledge to carry out these experiments.
The positive side of the viruses

Blumenthal: What does that mean for science, how do you deal with such a thing? This has been presented by the WHO at a conference in November 2016, which means that anyone who has this know-how, which is relatively small, as you have described it, can make these viruses.

Nitsche: I think you have to distinguish two things: What Professor Evans has done is the production, restoration of a virus, which is no longer the case in nature - this is the parallel to variolavirus - but this has infected horses Possibly a highly potent vaccine candidate. The virus, which Edward Jenner probably used, must not necessarily have been the cowpoxes described in the text books, there are also clear indications that it might be horsepox.

We know that the vaccines with which the smallpox administration has been very successful in the last century certainly also have their basis in the poxviruses, so these viruses have a great benefit, of course. There are different applications of these viruses also for the virus therapy, and so one can well see the positive side specifically of these viruses. What you certainly want to get out with your question is what it means for the variolaviren.

Since I said yes, the production of the viruses according to a comparable protocol is quite possible, but one knows that the possession, the synthesis and the production of Variola-identical DNA is fundamentally forbidden on the basis of regulations dictated by the WHO , Even the two reference centers in the USA and Russia are allowed to carry out tests with, I say, now living variable variolaviruses only on approval of the WHO.

Use as a biowapon - "Not excluded"

Blumenthal: Why should not someone come up with the idea to bring this bioweap back to life?

Nitsche: This idea is certainly not excluded. In the coming years, there will be developments that will make the synthesis of DNA even simpler and cheaper. There is, in synthetic biology, this rule, which says that in a year the synthesis capacities are doubled at halved prices. Companies that currently offer syntheses, such as the German company that you have named in your complaint, are performing self-imposed screening procedures, according to which certain sequences of highly pathogenic pathogens, for example, are not synthesized.

Blumenthal: But suppose someone is producing and releasing poxviruses, what does it look like with a vaccine, would there be that, is there or can the short term be produced in large quantities?

Nitsche: So in Germany there is a stock of sufficient vaccine for the German population. This is the vaccine which has also been used for eradication in Germany and parts of Europe. As a good news, there are now antiviral substances that have been developed in the USA and are about to be approved.

The substance Tpox, which is a modern antiviral agent against the growth of poxviruses in the body, but also other substances which are already known from the therapy, for example, of herpes viral diseases, such as the brincidofovir , Are relatively promising. This means that one can not only vaccinate prophylactically, but can also be treated in an outbreak.
"Assume that there will be publication"

Blumenthal: David Evans has not yet published a publication on the development of this horsepox virus - is this a way to prevent the public from being informed about the How and the precise procedure, so can one keep something scientifically under the blanket?

Nitsche: I am quite sure that there will be a publication for this.

Blumenthal: And so it is then then so to speak for everyone on the Internet retrievable and then with little money and with sufficient time repeatable.

Nitsche: Yes, in principle a protocol is prescribed, which does nothing else but the individual building blocks. I say once again the revitalization of Orthopockenviren from a genome was published already 2003 for Vakziniaaviren. The mechanism behind this is established in pox virology in many laboratories.

What has now just been added is the synthesis of these fragments, and the syn- thetic capacities are not particularly significant. For example, the synthesis of a mycobacterial genome, which was five times greater in this case than the horsepox genome, was tailor-made for a minimal genome in the last year by American colleagues. So that these technical possibilities exist, is long known.