Bizarre Virus that Survives Boiling Acid May Treat Human Diseases

A bizarre virus that survives in nearly boiling acid may yield new clues to treat deadly diseases. Researchers have discovered blueprint for battling human disease using DNA that's essentially clad in near-indestructible armor.

"What's interesting and unusual is being able to see how proteins and DNA can be put together in a way that's absolutely stable under the harshest conditions imaginable," said Edward Egelman, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We've discovered what appears to be a basic mechanism of resistance-to heat, to desiccation, to ultraviolet radiation. And knowing that, then, we can go in many different directions, including developing ways to package DNA for gene therapy."

Finding effective packaging for DNA delivery is important because the human body has many ways to degrade and remove foreign DNA. This is the way in which your body combats viruses. However, that protective mechanism becomes a major obstacle for doctors seeking to use genes to battle disease. Creating an impenetrable packaging would overcome that problem.

That's why researchers examined the virus, SIRV2. This virus infects a microscopic organism known as Sulfolobus islandicus that lives in acidic hot springs where temperatures rise to 175 degrees. The researchers actually identified similarities between the SIRV2 virus and the spores that bacteria form to survive inhospitable environments.

"Understanding how these bacterial spores work gives us potentially new abilities to destroy them," said Egelman. "Having this basic scientific research leads in many, many directions, most of which are impossible to predict in terms of what the implications are going to be."

SIRV2 manages its unusual ability by forcing its DNA into what is known as an A-form, which is a structural state.

The findings are important when it comes to better understanding viruses and how to potentially treat diseases with similar mechanisms.

The findings are published in the journal Science.

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