Scientists have uncovered more “zombie viruses” as global warming leads to the thawing of permafrost revealing ancient diseases.
A new research paper, that is yet to be peer-reviewed, found 13 new viruses in ancient Siberian permafrost soil samples.
The scientists found DNA viruses have the capacity to remain infectious for more than 48,500 years in permafrost.
So, should we be worried about these zombie viruses?
What is a zombie virus?
A zombie virus refers to a virus trapped in permafrost which is ground that is frozen for at least two years straight.
Assistant Professor Jeremy Barr from Monash University said zombie viruses are essentially “frozen in time” but scientists found when they thaw out permafrost soil samples they can revive the viruses – and are still infectious.
That’s why they’re given the name “zombie virus” because they have returned to life.
What did scientists find?
Researchers at Aix-Marseille University found DNA viruses infecting Acanthamoeba, single-celled living organisms recovered from soil or water, can remain infectious for 48,500 years.
“It is thus likely that ancient permafrost (eventually much older than 50,000 years, our limit solely dictated by the validity range of radiocarbon dating) will release these unknown viruses upon thawing,” the research paper said.
“How long these viruses could remain infectious once exposed to outdoor conditions (UV light, oxygen, heat), and how likely they will be to encounter and infect a suitable host in the interval, is yet impossible to estimate.
“But the risk is bound to increase in the context of global warming when permafrost thawing will keep accelerating, and more people will be populating the Arctic in the wake of industrial ventures.”
The researchers said the number of zombie viruses frozen in time in permafrost is probably quite high and could be a public health threat.
“While the literature abounds on descriptions of the rich and diverse prokaryotic microbiomes found in permafrost, no additional report about ‘live’ viruses have been published since the two original studies,” the research said.
“This wrongly suggests that such occurrences are rare and that ‘zombie viruses’ are not a public health threat.”
The study also warned zombie viruses could infect humans, not just single-celled organisms.
Are zombie viruses dangerous?
The short answer is no.
Barr said it is “surprising” that scientists were able to recover viruses from almost 50,000 years ago but it is well known that viruses can be stored frozen for long periods of time.
“I ran a lab at Monash University and we freeze virus samples all the time and we can bring them out of the freezer and they’ll still be functional,” he said.
Barr said the key takeaway from this research is the viruses infected amoeba in the soil samples, not humans.
“Viruses have emerged from 50,000 years ago but these are viruses infect amoeba. It’s likely those amoeba lived in those soil samples 50,000 years ago and those viruses were frozen there,” he said.
“If there was a frozen virus that could infect us, you would need to have frozen humans or human bodies from 50,000 years ago that died from a virus to revive a virus that could infect us,” he said.
He said viruses are everywhere and many people are “terrified of the word virus after the pandemic” but the vast majority of viruses are actually good and don’t cause disease.
“This is nothing to be worried about,” he said.
What does it mean for science?
Barr said finding these ancient viruses are a “cool novelty” and it could lead to key scientific revelations in the ongoing study of viruses.
“You can look at this like a frozen time capsule where we can go back 50,000 years ago and find these viruses that were infecting micro-organisms,” he said.
“We can study a lot of that. How did viruses from 50,000 years ago affect those organisms and how do they compare to organisms now.
“That’s really cool.”
Source: 9 News