People often say that viruses change color, which makes sense. Many human diseases are indeed caused by viruses, which make people and other creatures sick and endanger their health. For example, smallpox in animals, viral hepatitis, polio, influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, rabies, tobacco mosaic in plants, potato degradation, etc., have brought great losses and disasters to mankind. Common viruses are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus and influenza virus. HIV can lead to AIDS; Herpes simplex virus can cause cold sores, chickenpox and multiple sclerosis; Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the root cause of cervical cancer in adult women; Influenza virus is the virus that people are most likely to be infected with in their lives.
Viruses can trigger the outbreak of devastating epidemics in human society, and their ability has aroused people's concern about the weaponization of viruses in biological warfare. In the whole history before smallpox virus was eliminated, it caused almost devastating disasters to human society many times. According to the official statement, there are only two smallpox virus storage centers in the world-Russian vector laboratory and US Centers for Disease Control. Worryingly, smallpox virus may be used as a biochemical weapon. What is even more worrying is that smallpox vaccine has strong side effects. In the last year before smallpox was eliminated, more people were infected with smallpox because of smallpox vaccine than because of smallpox virus, and smallpox vaccine has never been widely tested and popularized. So, now humans have no resistance to smallpox.
However, this virus is not without its merits. It also has its benefits for human beings. As long as it is used properly, viruses can also be used to benefit mankind. At present, viruses are widely used in health, medicine, industry and agriculture, environmental protection, biological evolution and many other fields.
In medicine, the study of biological genome, represented by the Human Genome Project, has become the frontier of the whole life science research, and the study of microbial genome is an important branch. Science, an authoritative magazine in the world, once rated microbial genome research as one of the major scientific advances in the world. Revealing the genetic mechanism of microorganisms through genome research, discovering important functional genes, and developing vaccines and new antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal drugs on this basis will have a great impact on effectively controlling the epidemic of old and new infectious diseases and promoting the development of medical and health undertakings. The application of vaccinia vaccine successfully eliminated a disease-smallpox for the first time in human history, and the current genetic engineering vaccine has also played a huge role in the effective prevention of diseases, such as the prevention of hepatitis B virus.
Similarly, viruses also play an important role in cancer treatment and gene therapy. Coxsackie virus is a common virus, which infects human body through respiratory tract and digestive tract. After infection, people will have fever, sneezing, cough and other cold symptoms. The latest experiment by Australian scientists found that Coxsackie virus can accurately kill cancer cells of breast cancer without harming normal cells of human body, and normal cells of human body will also be "implicated" in the process of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer. Another example is oncolytic virus therapy, which uses viruses as carriers to treat various diseases because they can act on specific cells and DNA. Scientists in Singapore have found that plant baculovirus will not be decomposed when it "shuttles" in the stomach, which makes it a carrier of oral vaccine. Phage can be used as a specific medicine to prevent and treat some diseases, such as burn patients applying chlorothalonil phage dilution to the affected area.
In industrial and agricultural production, viruses can be made into special pesticides. At present, it is possible to control pests such as Dendrolimus punctatus and Helicoverpa armigera on a large scale by using biological viruses. Viruses can not only "poison" pests without their knowledge, but also this biological insecticide is harmless to human body. According to materials scientists, the size and shape of viruses, as well as the number and properties of functional groups on their surfaces are carefully designed, and their surfaces carry special tools that can penetrate host cells. Because of its size, shape and clear chemical structure, virus has become a template for developing nano-materials. For example, the Naval Research Center in Washington uses cowpea heavy mosaic virus particles to amplify signals from DN microarray sensors. In this study, the virus particles separated the fluorescent dyes used to send signals and prevented the formation of non-fluorescent dimers with cooling function.
In terms of ecological environment and biological evolution: virus is the most abundant organism in aquatic environment. The number of viruses in the ocean is 15 times that of bacteria and archaea. A spoonful of seawater contains about/kloc-0.0 million viruses, most of which are bacteriophages, which are harmless to animals and plants. On the contrary, these viruses are vital to the marine and freshwater ecosystems: first, 90% of marine life is composed of microorganisms. Viruses can infect and destroy bacteria in microbial communities in water, thus forming the most important link of carbon cycle in marine environment. It is estimated that viruses can kill 20% of microorganisms every day, which is the main force to destroy harmful algae reproduction, thus reducing the threat of algae reproduction to other marine life. In addition, viruses can release organic molecules from bacterial cells, thus stimulating the growth of newborn bacteria and algae. Secondly, virus is an important natural gene transfer tool between different species, which can increase gene diversity and promote biological evolution. It is generally believed that viruses played a major role in the early evolution of organisms, and viruses are still the largest repository of unknown genes on earth. Third, viruses can enhance photosynthesis in the ocean, so they can reduce 300 million tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere every year.
Viruses are also of great significance to molecular and cell biology research. For example, in genetic research, viruses can help us understand the basic framework of molecular genetics, such as D replication, transcription, RNA post-transcription processing, transformation, protein transport and immunology. In cell engineering, some viruses can be used as fusion AIDS for cell fusion, such as Sendai virus. In genetic engineering, virus can be used as the carrier of the target gene and can be spliced on the chromosome of the target cell.
In short, with the progress of science and technology, people's knowledge and understanding of viruses is getting deeper and deeper, and the uses of viruses will be more extensive and diverse. Viruses have both advantages and disadvantages for human beings. We should treat it dialectically, and at the same time, we should continue to have in-depth contacts with this enemy and friend, know ourselves and ourselves, and benefit mankind!