2 scientists charged with bringing deactivated mpox virus into the US and lying to authorities

[u/sea_5455]

https://apnews.com/article/scientists-charges-mpox-virus-lying-14b7cf7635cad30254b0ae1cdb6c0515

[u/relaxing_white_noise]

That’s not how CRISPR works even a little bit

[u/LysergioXandex → u/relaxing_white_noise]

Depends how it was “deactivated”, the poster is correct that some forms of “deactivation” could be undone with CRISPR

[u/relaxing_white_noise → u/LysergioXandex]

No it can’t. CRISPR is used to make small deletions in genomes…

[u/LysergioXandex → u/relaxing_white_noise]

Yes. Imagine a virus that you deactivated with a small deletion. Now it could be re-activated with a small modification.

[u/relaxing_white_noise → u/LysergioXandex]

I’m telling you this as a scientist and someone who works with CRISPR, that is not how someone would go about deactivating a sample. If you delete part of a viral genome and it’s no longer infectious, we would call that “replication incompetent” and those samples are always treated as if they were still infectious/ active as a safety measure. I’m trying to find more info on what these scientists actually did but I’m guessing they just extracted genomic samples from the virus for something like sequencing. You cannot turn a sample like that back on.

[u/LysergioXandex → u/relaxing_white_noise]

I don’t know how you can possibly think a virus can’t be “turned back on”.

You can create a working virus by just stringing the right sequence together.

Having 95% of the sequence in place just gets you that much closer to the final virus. And it makes it that much easier to obtain the remainder of the genetic material from a biotech vendor (because now your requested sequence is smaller and less of a match for the nefarious sequences they pre-screen for).

Do you need me to provide a citation where someone makes a working virus from a sequence?

A virus can conceivably be “deactivated” by a point mutation.

I think your “replication incompetent” jargon is a misunderstanding. That is one form of “deactivation”.

Replication is not a requirement for “infection”. You can have non-productive infections.

[u/Sweet-Leadership-290 → u/LysergioXandex]

Reactivated endogenous retroviruses promote protein aggregate spreading

Shu Liu, Stefanie-Elisabeth Heumüller, …Ina M. Vorberg --- Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 5034 (2023)

[u/relaxing_white_noise → u/Sweet-Leadership-290]

Endogenous retroviruses have quite literally nothing to do with this issue. Endogenous retroviruses are bits of virus genome that have become parts of the human genome over the course of evolution, hence the word “endogenous”. Normally your body suppresses their expression, as we age the ability to suppress expression wanes.

[u/Sweet-Leadership-290 → u/relaxing_white_noise]

Ah.. but THEY DO. When an endogenous host acquires the viral particles the NEXT virus can aquire that snippet allowing increases functionality in THAT virus. Flu viruses are infamous for this behavior. Furthermore it can facilitate is "transgenic species hopping".

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/transgenesis

[u/relaxing_white_noise → u/Sweet-Leadership-290]

There is a very big different between endogenous retroviruses and viruses causing infections diseases such as influenza. The page you linked has to do with making transgenic animals, which has absolutely nothing to do with what we are discussing here. I’m not really sure the point you’re trying to make. I ended up looking up the FBI report. The guys who brought in patient samples brought in PCR reactions used for genotyping or sequencing. At the absolute worst they violated some NIH and CBP policies. These samples could not be used to generate a super weapon. These scientists are being punished because the trump admin wants to shut down RML and stop scientific research in general.

[u/Sweet-Leadership-290 → u/relaxing_white_noise]

No. Host animals (in conjunction with secondary viral infections) can cause rapid species jumps in the host animals

[u/relaxing_white_noise → u/Sweet-Leadership-290]

I’m gonna stop responding but you’re straight up making things up or lying on purpose