Why do certain “zombie” viruses frozen for 50,000 years resurface?

We can never say it enough, global warming has many catastrophic consequences on our planet and among them, we can notably mention the melting of the ice. And one of the results of this melting is that viruses stuck in the ice for millennia can resurface and endanger many animal species, but also humans.

« A lot of worrying things are happening in the permafrost, and it really shows why it is extremely important to keep the permafrost frozen as much as possible, ”explains Kimberley Miner, climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to our colleagues from CNN.

Searching for “zombie viruses”

Jean-Michel Claverie, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Genomics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Aix-Marseille, therefore wanted to experiment with unfreezing certain buried viruses to see if the viral particles were still infectious. Yeah, Jean-Michel apparently learned from the past three years and thought it was a good idea to mess with shady viruses.

The scientist was looking for “zombie viruses”, and he found them! The oldest of the strains he found is nearly 48,500 years old, according to radiocarbon dating of the soil, and came from a soil sample taken from an underground lake 16 meters deep. “ The fact that viruses infecting amoebas are still infectious after so long is indicative of a potentially bigger problem », explains the expert.

He explains that many other viruses are present in this type of sample: “ We know they are there. We are not sure if they are still alive. But our reasoning is that if amoeba viruses are still alive, there is no reason why other viruses should not be alive and capable of infecting their own hosts. »

Not very reassuring…

And Kimberley Miner is not really reassuring about the resurrection of these viruses because of global warming: “If there is a virus hidden in the permafrost with which we have not been in contact for thousands of years, our immune defenses may not be sufficient. You have to respect the situation and be proactive and not just reactive. And the way to fight fear is to have knowledge. »

“We don’t really know how these microbes will interact with the modern environment. It’s not really an experience that any of us would like to have,” concludes the expert. We’re not done with the viruses that make a monstrous mess, I’m telling you…

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