Mouse Virus or Bioweapon?

January 17, 2001

The announcement by Australian scientists that they have accidentally created a lethal mouse virus has raised fears that the technique might be used to create biological weapons. The scientists themselves have called for international conventions on biological weapons to be tightened. The researchers were not intending to produce a fatal virus but, as Toby Murcott of BBC Science reports, genetic manipulation does have the potential to spring major surprises.

Mousepox carrier

The researchers, based in Canberra, Australia, were hoping to genetically engineer the mousepox virus to produce a contraceptive vaccine to control mouse populations. Instead they made the virus so virulent that it killed all of the mice in the experiment within nine days of them being injected.

Ron Jackson of CSIRO’S wildlife division and Ian Ramshaw from the Australian National University used the mousepox virus as a vehicle for transporting egg proteins into mice. Their experiment revolved around the principle that if they could add a gene, known for its ability to stimulate antibodies, to the mice then they may be able to simulate antibodies against the mouse eggs and so cause the animals to be infertile.

Whilst they were aware that the mousepox virus could cause symptoms in the mice, they believed them to be minor. However once the IL-4 gene was added the researchers were surprised by the totally unexpected result.

Controls

There are many hundreds of laboratories around the world performing thousands of different types of genetic manipulation experiments on a multitude of different organisms. Research organisations in most countries impose very strict controls on the way these experiments are conducted.

Any researchers wanting to do such work have to assess the potential risk of their experiments and consider the worst case scenario. If the risk is thought to be too high the work will not proceed. However this lethal mouse virus was a genuine accident that no one involved predicted.

Virus expert Professor John Oxford says he would not have expected this result. He comments: ‘Most manipulations of viruses make them less virulent not more.’

He adds, though, that while rare, it is inevitable that unpredictable events will occur, which is why such experiments are closely monitored and performed in isolated laboratories.

Danger

Speaking to the New Scientist magazine, researcher Ron Jackson commented on the potential that the mousepox research might have if it fell into the wrong hands:

‘It would be safe to assume that if some idiot did put human IL-4 into human smallpox they’d increase the lethality quite dramatically…Seeing the consequences of what happened in the mice, I wouldn’t want to be the one who’d want to do the experiment.’

The potential for abuse of this discovery is real but virus expert, Professor Oxford, argues that to prevent all similar research would hinder efforts to tackle disease. Similarly concerns have been raised concerning publishing such findings and the freedom of the scientific press.

Before publishing their study the mousepox researchers consulted the Australian Department of Defence. The researchers reasons for wanting to publish were found to be justified when they explained that they wanted to make the scientific community aware that creating severe organisms can happen by accident. A full report is due to appear in the Journal of Virology in February.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/010117_mousepox.shtml