is it possible that the cold/influenza viruses are embedded in human DNA?
Are there any records of isolated people getting a cold?
About 9% of the human genome is thought to comprise relic viral DNA that has made it’s way into our cells over the course of human evolution. This DNA is fragmented and is not going to suddenly trigger the production of viruses from healthy cells.
There are some viruses that can lay quiescent within cells for long periods of time after infection and then reactivate but this isn’t generally a winning system because of the adaptive nature of the bodies immune system, the viruses that do tend to either cause brief periods of reinfection as a transmission strategy (such as Herpes) or rely on destruction or inactivation of the immune system (such as HIV)
Thanks. There is a least one disease that has a presence in our DNA; Multiple Sclerosis. What awakens it isnt known of course, but it has been sequenced and found.
So I was thinking maybe the cold virus is stored the same way.
Oy. MS is caused by changes in our own normal DNA; it’s not remotely the same as having the genome of a separate organism - even a virus - embedded in our genome.
The viruses enigmatic mentioned are generally ancient retroviruses, and have very little in common with a cold or flu virus. What you’re suggesting is that some part of our own genome has the ability to somehow “wake up” and assemble itself into a functional virus that can go out and infect others. While none of these concepts are, in and of themselves, impossible, we can pretty authoritatively state that this is absolutely not where colds and flu come from.
For starters, the human genome has been sequenced and is available to all researchers. Similarly, at least part of all these viral genomes have been sequenced. If the virus was part of our genome, then every time someone did a search on a viral sequence, they would have found an exact hit in the human genome. This would have been Very Big News, and would have prompted a great deal of excited commentary. The fact is, anyone with freely available software can look up the DNA sequence of any virus that’s been studied and search it against the human genome in a few minutes. If I were at work and had the inclination, I could do it myself, but I’m not going to bother, because it ain’t there.
Thanks Smeghead. Thats what I wanted to know.
So some day if Humanity makes it into space, we can leave the flu behind. Maybe.
Who would they tell?
Journals and diaries.
Presumably nobody goes to the international space station with a cold, and likely not to the scientific stations on the south pole.