Why is it important for virologists to study life forms in tropical rain forests?
June 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Questions and Answers
Why is it important for virologists to study life forms in tropical rain forests?
How might viruses be able to cure some diseases?
beanthedoctor on Tue, 30th Jun 2009 3:17 pm
well….it allows scientists to examine different strains, which may behave differently than the those that are currently known. Determining how viruses replicate, infect, lyse cells, etc allows one to possibly come up with drugs that can inhibit or kill that virus or similar strains. For example, it would be nice to find an HIV-like virus that can’t infect humans so we could study it safely. Also, finding a virus that kills disease-causing bacteria are also of interest. We have already used viruses to cure diseases (at least temporary) via gene therapy. We currently are able to use viruses to inject genes into cells to replace bad genes with good copies…..it worked for cystic fibrosis (but then the body built up resistance to the virus!).