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A man's life depends on an ancient virus
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
In the United States, a group of scientists made a sensational discovery. As studies have shown, the human embryo develops under the influence of a retrovirus that protects it from pathogenic microorganisms.
This study confirms the previously proposed theory that viruses that entered DNA became the impetus for evolutionary development.
Endogenous retroviruses are considered to be the remains of ancient infections that affected the reproductive cells of animals and made changes to the genotype. Individuals that were able to resist the attack of the virus and survive, subsequently inherit DNA with changes and pass them on to future generations. Experts have found that endogenous retroviruses make up about 9% of the genotype and, in principle, do not bring any benefit or harm.
American scientists have found in their research that in the first days of embryo development, whether an embryo will survive or die depends on the presence of the HERVK retrovirus. It is to this ancient virus that humans owe life on earth. In their research, experts have found that HERVK regulates gene activity and protects against harmful microorganisms. Joanna Wysocka and her colleagues studied the activity of various viruses in three-day-old human embryos, and as a result, the eight-cell embryo contained not only parental DNA, but also the HERVK virus, which is considered the most recent of the endogenous retroviruses to penetrate human DNA (according to experts, this happened about two hundred thousand years ago).
As Vysotska noted, the embryo cells were literally stuffed with viral protein products, some of which had already managed to assemble into virus-like particles.
Further studies have shown that the HERVK retrovirus produces a protein that protects the embryo from attacks by other viruses, in other words, the ancient virus protects the human embryo from influenza and other dangerous diseases. In addition, one of the proteins produced by the retrovirus binds to a portion of the cells' ribonucleic acid and regulates the work of ribosomes.
It turns out that the endogenous retrovirus is extremely important for early human development; without it, the embryo would most likely die from an attack by various microorganisms in the first days of its development.
Joanna Wysocka and her team published the results of their research in one of the most authoritative scientific journals – Nature. The publication immediately caused a number of comments from colleagues in scientific circles. Patrick Forterre, a scientist from France, noted in his statement that the researchers managed to show the presence of a protein in the early stages of embryonic development. It is quite possible that these proteins play an important role in the early development of the embryo, but scientists still have a lot of work to do in the field of embryonic development, since this discovery raises more questions than answers.
Experts have been trying to study the human embryo for many years. At Oregon Health and Science University, scientists have been able to extract stem cells from human embryos, which gives hope that an effective cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis will appear in the near future.
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