American Scientist

Viruses are everywhere on Earth: They're in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and in—or rather, infecting—all living things. They're constantly evolving, especially because those viruses with smaller, ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based genomes tend to mutate much more often than larger, less-error-prone DNA-based genomes do. That evolution also means new ways of emerging—the term for when a virus is increasing in incidence, or has the potential to do so.

One variety of viruses, called coronaviruses, is particularly good at emerging: It's one of the varieties of viruses responsible for the common cold (the main variety is rhinoviruses). Until 2002, coronaviruses were known also for their emergence among livestock.

Then a particular coronavirus mutated and made the jump from bats—the "animal reservoir" in this case—to people. It emerged in 2003 as Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

"It's not just humans that are susceptible to this phenomenon—it's probably happening all the time—all you need to do is put two animals in the same room and they could be transmitting some infectious disease from one to the other," says Tim Sheahan, who researches coronaviruses at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

I spoke with Sheahan in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where he was giving a talk about his research for a local Sigma Xi chapter (Sigma Xi is American Scientist's publisher). He's collaborating with a number of research groups on the development of a broad-spectrum antiviral, having identified that a drug under development for treating Ebola (a filovirus) is also effective against the coronaviruses SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). That's progress, as there are no approved antiviral therapies for any human coronavirus infection. Right now, you'll just have to rely on your immune system against those deadly viruses.

Here's our interview.

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