Synthetic virology

Synthetic Virology is the scientific discipline engaged in the study and engineering of synthetic, man-made Viruses.

It is a multidisciplinary research field, at the crossroad of Virology, Synthetic Biology, Computational Biology, and DNA Nanotechnology from which it borrows and integrates its concepts and methodologies. There are a wide range of applications for synthetic viral technology such as medical treatments, investigative tools, and reviving organisms[1].

Constructing de novo Synthetic Viruses

Advancements in genome sequencing technology [2] and oligonucleotide synthesis paved the way for construction of synthetic genomes based on previously sequenced genomes. Both RNA or DNA viruses can be made using existing methods. RNA viruses have historically been utilized due to the typically small genome size and existing reverse transcription machinery present [3]. The first man-made infectious viruses generated without any natural template were of the Polio virus and the φX174 bacteriophage. With synthetic live viruses, it is not the whole viruses that are synthesized, but rather their genome at first, both in the case of DNA and RNA viruses. For many viruses, viral RNA is infectious when introduced into a cell (during infection or after reverse transcription.) These organisms are able to sustain an infectious life cycle upon introduction in vivo.

Applications for Synthetic Viruses

This technology is now being used to investigate novel vaccine strategies [4]. The ability to synthesize viruses has far-reaching consequences, since viruses can no longer be regarded as extinct, as long as the information of their genome sequence is known and permissive cells are available. As of March 2014, the full-length genome sequences of 3843 different viruses, including smallpox, are publicly available in an online database maintained by the National Institutes of Health.

Synthetic viruses have been researched as potential gene therapy tools as well [5].

1) First synthetic Polio virus (2002) - http://www.sciencemag.org/content/297/5583/1016

2) First synthetic Bacteriophage φX174 (2003) - http://www.pnas.org/content/100/26/15440.full

3) Codagenix - Synthetic Virology technology to investigate novel vaccine strategies.

4) SynVaccine - Synthetic Virology technology to investigate novel vaccine strategies.

5) West Nanorobotics - Chimeric Bacteriophage MV-3 (2018) , Extremephile Chickpox Vector CPV-2 (2017), and Multivalent Viral Vector MRHHS MV-5 (2016) Synthetic Virology technology to investigate Anti-bacterial Viruses and Gene Therapy Vectors for Cancer.

References

  1. ↑ Cello, Jeronimo; Paul, Aniko V.; Wimmer, Eckard (2002-08-09). "Chemical Synthesis of Poliovirus cDNA: Generation of Infectious Virus in the Absence of Natural Template". Science. 297 (5583): 1016–1018. doi:10.1126/science.1072266. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 12114528.
  2. ↑ Heather, James M.; Chain, Benjamin (2016-01). "The sequence of sequencers: The history of sequencing DNA". Genomics. 107 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1016/j.ygeno.2015.11.003. ISSN 0888-7543. PMC 4727787. PMID 26554401. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ↑ Stauft, Charles B; Wimmer, Eckard (2018-02-16), "Synthetic Viruses", eLS, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 1–7, doi:10.1002/9780470015902.a0027771, ISBN 9780470015902
  4. ↑ Wimmer, Eckard; Mueller, Steffen; Tumpey, Terrence M; Taubenberger, Jeffery K (2009-12). "Synthetic viruses: a new opportunity to understand and prevent viral disease". Nature Biotechnology. 27 (12): 1163–72. doi:10.1038/nbt.1593. ISSN 1087-0156. PMC 2819212. PMID 20010599. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ Guenther, Caitlin M.; Kuypers, Brianna E.; Lam, Michael T.; Robinson, Tawana M.; Zhao, Julia; Suh, Junghae (2014-11). "Synthetic Virology: Engineering Viruses for Gene Delivery". Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology. 6 (6): 548–558. doi:10.1002/wnan.1287. ISSN 1939-5116. PMC 4227300. PMID 25195922. Check date values in: |date= (help)


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