Leo and PC do you know what MS is? I have a good friend who has it. He was treated with a drug called Tysabri, which weakens the immune system to the point where viruses start entering the brain. One of those viruses is the JC virus, which causes PML. That's a cancer, it happens when the brain's immune system attacks itself. There's a particular deletion variant of this virus that causes epilepsy, it attacks oligodendrocytes and somehow causes the neurons to misbehave. There's another deletion variant that causes neuronopathy, and all these variations only happen after the virus enters the brain.
It just so happens I was one of the first people in America to study the JC virus, I know a lot about it. I work with a group in Chicago that has an extensive clinical practice, and what I do for them is model the neural aspects of these variations on a computer. We figure out which particular genes the virus variants are attacking and how that affects nerve cell behavior. For this work, we need to study human neural genomes. Which are extensive, and complicated.
The JC virus itself is tiny, it's only about 5000 base pairs of DNA. The variations occur in the non coding control regions of the DNA. (These are like the viral equivalents of promoters and transcription factors). JC in its native form attacks glial cells, not neurons. It causes inflammation in the white matter of the brain, which then triggers an immune response. So we want to know, how the mutations switch the virus from attacking glial cells, to causing epilepsy in the neurons.
This particular virus is a great case model because the mutations are REPEATABLE, which is very rare. The DNA segments in question are somehow "susceptible" to these particular mutations. So what we've done, is create a genetically engineered mouse with pieces of human DNA in it, that allow the JC virus to cross the blood brain barrier and enter the brain. The same types of mutations occur in the mouse, as occur in humans - and now we can WATCH the mouse neurons becoming infected. After mutation, the infection travels from the glial cells into the neuron, where it causes epilepsy and granule cell neuronopathy.
We work with a group in Finland that's studying a whole different aspect of this equation - it turns out that children get easily infected by JC and it hangs out in the kidneys without ever entering the brain and without causing any symptoms. They're looking at why the virus prefers young kidneys. This is important research because a lot of people get MS and Tysabri is one of their best chances of slowing its progression - IF they can survive the first few doses.
Okay? This is what I do, my computer has 320 tB of neural network simulations on it resulting from 14 different JC variants. We can now predict with great accuracy whether and when a human patient will become epileptic after treatment for MS. At this moment, we're working on an NCCR inhibitor that prevents the virus from mutating. It doesn't prevent entry into the brain, it just prevents a very dangerous mutation that occurs afterwards. In about six months we'll have this figured out, and the people funding this research will have a safe and effective treatment to counteract the side effects of the MS medications in humans. And then we'll move on to the next side effect. All I do is computer work, but I see ALL the DNA sequences. I probably know as much about human glial DNA as anyone on the planet.
This a teeny, tiny piece of the human DNA puzzle, but that's how science works. We don't get grandiose thinking we can create life or even engineer a cell - all we do is look at a minuscule piece of DNA (it's about 140 base pairs long) and try to understand why it matters. After enough people do stuff like this, someone will come along and figure out how to entirely prevent the JC virus from entering the brain, but we're not there yet, it's going to take a lot more work before that can happen. Do you understand?
Creating a living cell from scratch is a waste of time right now, there's several thousand very deadly human diseases that take precedence. Maybe my grandkids will figure out how to do what you ask. I myself am more interested in helping my friend live a longer and healthier life.
I don't worry about a Creator, I just put one foot in front of the other and do what's in front of me. Once in a while I need a break - like today - I'm totally burnt out. I run a music production company too, because I have to make a living. I rarely have time to philosophize, and almost never have as much time as I've spent with you on this thread. But I figured you and PC might be worth the effort. Please prove me right. Don't expect too much from us scientists, we're already overwhelmed and multitasking. Give it time, you'll get your answer. Someday there will be an Einstein of biology, and s/he'll figure it out.
