About Me
My name's Cori Ostmann, I am currently a third year nursing student enrolled in a microbiology course at Alverno College. I chose a developing topic that I, myself did not have prior knowledge about until I did further research. I hope that this blog was not only a learning experience for myself, but my peers as well. I will be discussing some important and interesting facts I found during my research of the human virome.
The Human Virome
So, what is it?
The human virome is the collection of all the viruses inside one's body (Williams, 2013). This differs from person to person. The viruses in one depends on one's geographic location. For example, Ebola and HIV are more common in Africa. This is due to lack of proper health care, education and scarcity of clean resources such as water. One's age also is a determining factor for how many viruses one's body contains. Children and those from third world countries are expected to have the highest viral load. Season of the year also determines how many viruses are going around. Genetics plays a role as well. Certain genetics are prime for virus replication. There are alleles that are allow certain viruses to cause symptoms in their victims. Lastly, immunity is another key factor for how many viruses a body carries. Of course, the stronger the immune system responds, the less likely a person is to suffer from a viral disease.
Who's working on this?
The Human Microbiome Project is being performed, which is funded by the National Institute of Health. This institute is currently trying to determine all the microbes living inside the human body,
including viruses (Delwart, 2013).
Where are the majority of viruses located in the human body?
The majority
of viruses are in the nasal passages, oral cavities, skin, gastrointestinal and
urogenital tract, this is why we prefer fecal, saliva, and urine samples to
determine what viruses are present in the human body (Delwart, 2013).
Why don't we know as much about viruses as we do about bacteria?
Viruses are much more difficult to identify. Viruses contain
several more DNA sequences than bacteria. More often than not, when scientists
collect new samples from an individual, they found that the vast majority were
new viruses they had not seen before. Viruses affect our bodies in a variety of
ways. The most stereotypical way we think of viruses is the fact that they
cause disease. However, not all viruses disappear once they cause illness, some
leave signatures on a cell. Not every time a virus invades a cell does it cause symptoms. The majority of the
viruses inside us, “rent” cells from our body’s bacteria. These viruses are
called bacteriophages, which infect bacterium and reproduce inside them. These
are the structures with six legs that attach to rod shaped bacterium.
https://www.sciencenews.org/sites/default/files/images/virome_dangerzone.png
Maybe these "unexplained" diseases really aren't unexplainable after all...
Asthma is originally seen as a genetic disorder. However, this is still shown to be true except for the fact that those who experience "flare-ups" also contain the rhinovirus. So in other words, some disorders/diseases are probably triggered more when a virus is present (Delwart, 2013).
Viruses can be a good thing?!
Certain viruses provide immunity to other viruses. This was shown when cowpox was injected into people to avoid small pox. Being
infected with certain viruses can prevent us from getting ill from certain
infections caused by BACTERIA.
Example- Having a form of the Herpes virus, such as herpes simplex, which causes cold sores, can help to boost the function of the
immune system.
Experiment- Mice have been exposed to bacteria that cause plague and listeria and these mice that were infected
with herpes already were 100% protected against the plague and listeria
bacteria. Mice that did not already have the herpes virus, died.
How? Why? They then
studied these mice that lived and found they had many more interferon gamma
(signaling molecules) that stimulate an increased immune system response.
Why
are we trying to figure out which viruses live inside us?
We need to understand which viruses live within us to understand
how certain viruses effect the body. We can also improve prevention measure and treatment. If we can figure out which viruses live inside we can keep track of each type and see which agents are changing over time. The
more we know, the better we can differentiate illnesses caused by
viruses versus bacteria. Viruses cannot be treated by antibiotics, instead they
must be waited out. In return we could limit the use of antibiotics and only
use them when seriously needed. This would also reduce the amount of antibiotic
resistance.
What are the majority of the viruses inside us?
Most of the viruses in the
human body are bacteriophages, which infect bacterium and reproduce inside them. These are the six-legged structures shown in the first picture that attach to rod-shaped bacterium (Williams, 2013).
References
Delwart, E. (2013, February 14). A roadmap to the human virome.
Retrieved November 2, 2014, from
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1003146
Williams, S. (2013, February 6). The other microbiome. Retrieved
November 2, 2014, from http://www.pnas.org/content/110/8/2682.full
