Part human, part virus

Looking at glamour magazines of beautiful people, you’d think that humans are really made of fruity gels and glitter glue. But when you get the colds or the flu, whether you are one of those fabulous models or not, we feel more like a damp rag tattered by warring cats. Viruses can make you feel that way inside and out. I had the flu a few weeks ago and like all those who have experienced the illness, I felt like the virus had me than the other way around.

An article by Dr. Frank Ryan, biologist and medical doctor specializing in viruses, confirmed my suspicion. Entitled “I, virus: Why you’re only half human” in the New Scientist online last Jan. 29, it explained in detail how humans are really the repositories overtime of fragments of viruses which have managed to build themselves into our system, affecting our biology. I can imagine the screams and objections of glamorous men and women objecting to the realization that as humans, they are partly viruses. But they may want to think twice of whether there is a point to objecting to facts so whether they like it or not, here is how scientists knew of our viral nature.

Before scientists had a final count on our genes, they suspected we had about 100,000. But when the mapping was completed, it turned out that humans only have 25,000 genes (rice has more genes!). Then, as a further slap to our biological pride, it turned out that these genes comprise only about 1.5 percent of our entire genome. Another nine percent came from viruses that have managed to work their way into human genes as they are passed on. Another 34 percent, Dr. Ryan says, are not exactly active viruses but virus-like material that do not do anything but copy themselves. The remaining balance of the human genome is yet unknown in terms of what they do and how they got there. With about half the human genome accounted for in terms of our understanding, our biological status seems to be, in large part, viral.

Viruses like the flu or cold are nasty but they do leave. Some viruses apparently never leave. Some take a permanent address in our DNA and become a part of our genome. This is how virus-derived genes in our system got there. Scientists suspect they are remnants of the epidemics and plagues our ancestors survived. We only know of viruses as contagious and nasty. Little is taught in school (except of course medical school) that viruses are a fact of life and that they have been part of its evolution. The way a virus behaves when we treat it with antibiotics is the best example of evolution at work.

When we come in contact with a virus, it invades our cells, as we become hosts to it. It needs our cells to reproduce and this they do very well inside our cells. You do not need a medical degree to know that if a virus treats your own cells as their love nest, it spells trouble. If you are down grumpy with the flu or cold virus, consult with humorist Dave Barry. He attempted to make light of the matter and explain how a virus works in his re-published column “Waging the Germ Warfare” in the Miami Herald Tribune last December 2009 where he said that after these little viruses have had sex inside your cells, they smoke little cigarettes and that is what causes your fever. I could really imagine a cartoon depicting this. But seriously, those who do not understand evolution could look to the virus as an example of nature adapting and morphing, and this is why your old antibiotics could no longer deal with the same virus overtime. Viruses successfully transform themselves into versions (strains) that are resistant to the antibiotics you had taken to get rid of their older versions.

For a virus to stay in our system as we stay alive, they have to convert their status like a migrant being naturalized as a citizen. This “naturalization” no longer makes the virus infectious but they make their addresses in the DNA of your sperm or egg, passing them on to future generations. That is how scientists have come to know that the evolution of humans has, in large part, been affected by the viruses that invaded it. Dr. Ryan cited many examples where they found proof of our genes that were derived from viruses. These are present in crucial parts that make us human — in our placenta, in our brains, in our blood. Those are just a few.

I guess there will never be cover features of models posing with their colds or flu in glamour magazines. They will never widely sell. But viruses don’t care. They are all over every human anyway, inside and out.

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