Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Microbiology Research Institute. In a conversation with the radio station NF Gamalei Alexander Butenko “Moscow Talks” He commented on the discovery made by an international group of scientists from Russia, Germany and France. Researchers have discovered that ancient viruses that have been in Siberian permafrost for thousands of years can still infect modern Acanthamoeba amoebae.
According to Butenko, such discoveries should not be feared. He noted that modern scientists are aware of a wide variety of ancient viruses.
“It can’t be mirrored in any way,” the epidemiologist said.
According to him, ancient viruses should be treated “philosophically, for what they were, what they could be, as they were a long time ago.” Butenko noted that there are numerous such viruses, for example, in plankton, fish and shrimps in the oceans.
He also pointed out that this information is not cause for concern, adding that “it is scientifically interesting, but not an additional concern by any means, which is sufficient anyway.”
as the magazine reported virusesThe scientists analyzed 13 new paleoviruses isolated from the frozen lands of Kamchatka, the Lena River, the permafrost of Siberia, the contents of the stomachs of woolly mammoths and fossil worms whose remains were found in the Siberian permafrost. Among the viruses, experts have identified various sedraviruses and pandoraviruses that parasitize Acanthamoeba, as well as megavirus, pithovirus and pacmanvirus.
Ancient Russian scientists opened a group of predatory microorganisms, representatives of which can bite the cells of victims.