Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Infectious diseases are an often-addressed topic in my column, sometimes because an outbreak is dominating the news cycle and other times because a disease may be seasonally relevant.
And discussion of infectious diseases inevitably turns to the tiny agents that frequently lead to illnesses.
Remember summer reading lists when you were in grade school? I recall one book that had a very strong influence on me. Sometime at the end of the summer before seventh or eighth grade I guess, I took “Microbe Hunters” by Paul De Kruif out of the Bayonne, N.J., library and couldn’t put it down. Published in 1926, it’s the story of several early scientists who used crude self-built microscope to first see microorganisms and ultimately recognize the role they played in so many things like causing disease as well as making cheese and wine, for example.
It’s really important to differentiate among the many types of microscopic life (and nearly alive) forms like bacteria, fungi, viruses, phages and parasites.
Recently, we discussed how bacteria can be harmful in our analysis of Legionnaire’s disease and the Legionella bacteria that causes it. We also brought up helpful bacteria in our look at trendy diets and how they might affect gut and heart health.
But did you know viruses can be bad and good as well? A new article in Popular Science caught my attention recently and inspired me to feature the microscopic, and rather peculiar, little bundles of nucleic acid and protein in this week’s installment.
Viruses do not fall neatly into a category in taxonomy. They are technically not considered organisms, because they do not “live” by the definition of the word as it applies to other living organisms. Viruses spend much of their lifespan dormant, and only when they infiltrate host cells can they reproduce and exhibit metabolic processes that would indicate life.
Viruses land on a living cell, attach to it, and inject their DNA so the host cell can be used as an incubator to replicate the virus.
When they do reproduce, they are associated with some of the most devastating and communicable diseases known to humankind. Influenza, Ebola, HIV and smallpox are among viruses’ most infamous contagions, so you see why they get the bad rap.
However, as the studious writers and editors at Popular Science have pointed out, viruses can make several positive contributions to humanity including fending off bacteria and preventing other viruses.
Weakened or inactive viruses are often used to create vaccines, which produce cells that protect against future disease, which might be induced by full-strength versions of the virus.
Viruses can also be naturally prophylactic, contributing to immune system development for young people and building resistance to other infections by perpetually stimulating the immune system in low concentrations.
Non-symptomatic herpes viruses are a good example. They equip white blood cells with antigens that cause an immune response when they detect certain pathogens.
Pegivirus C is another asymptomatic agent that recent research has shown can lengthen the lifespan of patients with HIV.
Then there are bacteriophages, which are viruses that replicate using bacteria as host cells. Appropriately named, these “devourers of bacteria” destroy their host cells during the reproductive process.
Dysentery, staphylococcus-caused sepsis, salmonella and dermatological infections are among the bacteria-fueled illnesses that have been treated with bacteriophages in the past, and the bacteria eaters are garnering attention anew in today’s medical landscape.
Because antibiotic-resistant infections are an increasingly worrisome issue, bacteriophages are being examined as an alternative treatment. And with the help of genetic engineering, bacteriophages can be designed, through trial and error, to battle specific bacterial strains.
Furthermore, now that we’ve identified helpful viral presence in the blood, skin and gut, there’s hope that we might utilize this information to better understand viral disease and how to prevent it. So next time you’re cursing that virus that has you laid up for a few days, remember that studying that tiny, not-so-living entity could be the future of medicine.
