Global project "Virom"
Scientists plan to describe 1.6 million viruses
Anna Kerman, XX2 century, based on Medical Xpress: Ambitious global virome project could mark the end of pandemic era
Should we wait for new outbreaks of viral diseases like those caused by the Ebola and Zika viruses and react to what has happened – or act proactively, stopping viral threats before they cause a pandemic? The authors of the new global initiative propose the second option.
The global project "Virom" (Global Virome Project) got its name from the word "virom", the so-called totality of all viruses of the human body. The essence of the project is described in an article of the same name published on February 23, 2018 in the journal Science. The global project "Virom" should become an international partnership, the purpose of which is to identify and prevent the spread of most of the so–far unknown viruses living on our planet. According to the authors of the project, such an approach can end the "era of pandemics".
"Now we can identify viral threats before they cause epidemics," says Dr. Jonna Mazet, co–author of the article in Science and executive director of the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis. – It's time to move away from the reactive model, which assumes a "hunt" for the latest terrible virus, in favor of a proactive one. We are capable of this – and finally we will be able to identify future threats and take measures aimed at preventing new pandemics."
1.6 million types of viruses have not yet been discovered
The last pandemics began with the fact that people were infected with viruses from animals. As reported in the article, about 1.6 million species of viruses living in bird and mammal populations have not yet been described. At the same time, approximately 650-840 thousand of these unknown viruses are capable of infecting people and causing diseases.
Detecting most potentially dangerous viruses is an ambitious but realistic goal. The fundamental possibility of achieving it was proved within the framework of the PREDICT program – then scientists found about 1,000 new viruses infecting animal and human organisms. The Predict program has been implemented in 35 countries, mainly in high-risk areas where humans and wild animals live side by side, which increases the likelihood of pathogen transmission.
A new project is being launched to multiply the results of PREDICT and speed up the process of discovering new viruses.
"As the ecological profiles of each type of virus are created in the global virom project, we will be able to put our vaccines and drugs "on the front line" of the approaching war with a new disease. The ecological profile of the virus will contain information about which species it affects, where it occurs on the planet, the inhabitants of which settlements (people and livestock) may encounter this virus," says lead author Dr. Dennis Carroll from the American Bureau of Global Health (Bureau for Global Health).
Preventing is cheaper than reacting
Prevention of outbreaks may be more profitable than combating epidemics that have already begun. For example, in 2003 SARS globally "claimed" from 10 to 30 billion US dollars. But, of course, the high cost of preventive virus identification and the development of new strategies to combat them are still a serious problem.
According to the authors of the Global Project "Virom", the description of most virus threats and the assessment of the risks associated with them could cost less than 10% of the cost of eliminating one large-scale epidemic. Scientists also compare the new initiative with the Human Genome project launched in the 1980s, mentioning that the latter led to the emergence of new technologies and contributed to the beginning of the era of personalized genomics and medicine. Something similar can happen in the case of the successful implementation of the Global project "Virom". In this context, it is important that viruses can provoke the development of oncological and psychiatric diseases, which means that the fight against viruses can have a very significant impact on public health in general. In addition, the new project can help with the identification of vulnerable populations and the prevention of pandemics.
International efforts
The idea of the Global project "Virom" was born in 2016. It was then that experts from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe began developing the project framework. Representatives of the industry, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, as well as players from the private business sector took part in the work. Field work in China and Thailand is due to start this year.
The creators of the project are optimistic, they hope that they will be able to detect and neutralize the sources of virus threats themselves.
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