Regarding the new crown virus, some experts have said that in the future it may coexist with humans for a long time like a flu virus. Now it seems that this is not alarmist.
According to foreign media reports, a new study published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) pointed out that it has found strong evidence that the new coronavirus has the ability to insert and integrate into human genes. This may That's why patients who have recovered have still tested positive for the virus.
The researchers said that the new coronavirus is not a retrovirus, which means that its replication does not require reverse transcription. However, non-retroviral RNA (ribonucleic acid) viral sequences have been detected in the genomes of many vertebrates, including humans.
However, the new coronavirus itself does not have the ability to insert and integrate itself into the human gene pool, which means that it needs an indirect method to help it complete the integration task.
In order to find evidence that the new coronavirus can achieve gene integration, the researchers not only searched for new coronavirus-human gene fragment chimeras, and tried to observe and analyze the "tools" for the new coronavirus gene integration, they also directly searched for the presence of viral gene sequences in human genes. evidence of.
In order to ensure the results of the test, the researchers used three different DNA sequencing technologies. In each test, it was found that fragments of the genetic material of the new coronavirus were inserted into the gene bank of the infected cell.
Further examination revealed that the new coronavirus seems to achieve gene integration through a type of transposon (jumping gene). A jumping gene is a DNA sequence that can be copied or broken down separately from the original position, inserted into another site after circularization, and regulates the genes behind it.
The researchers said that one of these sequences, called LINE1 retrotransposons, occupies 17% of our entire genome. Although most of them have lost the ability to replicate and integrate, there are still some that are very active, and it is they that help the new coronavirus to achieve genetic integration.
However, the research was done in cell cultures infected in the laboratory, so it is unclear whether this effect can be achieved in a human host as well. Of course, with the deepening of research, it is only a matter of time before this mystery is solved.