Transformation of the Rabies Virus

1. Transformation of the Rabies Virus Changes the world forever.

2. History • Rabies is a deadly disease that can effect all warm-blooded animals, including humans. It attacks the central nervous system and infects the brain and most of the tissues in the body. The brain becomes inflamed, and the CNS does not perform normally. It is known by the aggression it causes in the infected animal. The animal goes ‘crazy’ and attacks anything it comes in contact with. The disease is transmitted through open wounds or saliva. This disease is often deadly in humans, but does not have the same effect as in animals. Humans do not attack other animals. They may undergo paralysis and succumb to spasms, making it difficult to swallow. This usually leads to death.

3. The devastating transformation • In a biological institute in Japan, a strain of rabies was being experimented on. The biological institute was not government funded, or acknowledged.. This means the institute was illegally experimenting on a deadly virus. The scientists were performing gel electrophoresis, trying to find the nucleic acidsthat coded for the virus’s restriction enzymes. After the electrophoresis, they used DNA sequencing. They eventually found the nucleic acids AGC, CCC, and GAC bonded to create the gene that codes for the restriction enzymes of the rabies virus. The scientists added an siRNA to the virus that would seek out the enzyme and destroy it. This allows the scientists to freely experiment with the virus. The scientists gathered the genetic code for the heightened aggression from previous scientists’ work.

4. Playing god • They were unable to find the DNA segment in their virus, even after using a radioactive labeled probe. Their make-shift southern blotting had failed. But, they were able to find the mRNA that translated into the DNA segment they wanted. The scientists extracted the mRNA, and made a few tweaks to the aggression code. They injected it back into the virus and went on to extract the first few translations. They performed PCR on the few DNA strands they found, increasing the amount of DNA normally found in the virus. They put the DNA back in the virus. The next day, the scientists had collected twenty rats to test on. They put the rats in cages after injecting each with the virus. They left them alone for twenty four hours. Once they returned, they observed the rat cages. Thirteen of the mice had died, three were ravaging in their cages. The other four cages were empty, with frayed wire on the cage door. The scientists were worried, and left the room to search for the missing rats.

5. What have they done? • The scientists returned to the room without luck. They came back to find that all the rats were missing, even the dead ones. All of the cages were frayed with hair and blood on the walls. Shortly after their discovery, they heard a scream from the other room….