Raudfjorden Beach, Svalbard, Norway
My interest in Ebola began during my actuarial career, reading the "Hot Zone" , a 1994 non-fiction book about incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, including ebolaviruses and marbug viruses. The memory of the book stayed with me since I was reading it while sailing down the west coast of Vancouver Island in 15 foot swells in a sailing vessel. I can recall eating copious amounts of ginger cookies to ward off seasickness as I read of hemorrhagic fevers killing off people very quickly, in a very bloody and gory fashion, as all the while I was lurching back and forth in the sea and swell on the Pacific Ocean. The ginger cookies did their job and the memory is etched in my experience, gone but not forgotten, as Ebola emerges again, this time, expressed in the news of an outbreak.
These hemorrhagic diseases killed off people before they had a chance to spread extensively, and, were confined to certain areas in Africa and mostly away from major population centers.
According to the CDC, the virus can be spread through direct contact with blood and body fluids of a person infected with Ebola, with objects such as syringes infected with Ebola and infected fruit bats or primates. The question remains as to factors impacting the geographical distribution of Ebola, how it independently arises, factors of etiology and its potential spread elsewhere.
The recent upswing in the Ebola virus prompted me to question its etiology, transmission and other issues. For example, because of the increase in number of cases, I wondered if the virus had recombined with another virus to increase its transmission and decrease its mortality, or if there were other factors. In this blog article I consider a number of issues, and raise some questions relating to the virus.
Etiology
- Does Ebola predate the AIDs/SIV/HIV viruses and does it provide some idea of the origin of these viruses? The CDC expresses that it does not know the origin of the original host of the Ebola Virus; It is interesting to study the context of the Ebola virus regarding its emergence out of the Kinshasha Highway across the Congo into Uganda as discussed in "The Hot Zone". Did the virus have origins in bat habitats such as caves, rock, lava tubes, environments exposed to varying bacteria and archaea?
- The Ebola virus is a negative sense RNA virus. The production of proteins from a negative sense RNA virus require first the production of Messenger RNA (mRNA) and then proteins from mRNA. Ebola does not have reverse transcriptase, which would ordinarily be needed to enable insertion of its genetic contents into the DNA. Is its 'purpose' then to directly produce mRNA (messenger RNA), and why? Research has shown that the filoviruses behind Ebola are very old and that there is direct insertion of genetic content with indications of evolutionary divergence a long time ago. - The Lin Edwards article, "Ebola and Marburg viruses may be much older than thought" discusses this subject.
- Does the Ebola virus relate to issues concerning New World Monkeys and Old World Monkeys and the divergence of the two species? If so, would this tend to indicate the same type of environmental conditions that may have existed at the time of that divergence?
- What is the distribution of the virus? Does the virus act with regards to specific populations, affecting certain populations in a negative or positive way, and leaving others untouched. What factors in these populations would account for the outbreak? Are other populations at risk?
Transmission
- Did the Ebola virus recombine with another virus (for example the Corona Mers Virus , Seasonal Flu Virus or enteroviruses) to allow it to decrease its mortality rate and increase its transmission? Is it continuing to do so and would further recombination with the current seasonal flu change it further along these lines?
- A subject of interest to is transmission of Ebola from the natural host to a target population. Is Ebola being expressed, sustained within the target population or being sequestered? Does this imply sequestration in a host for transmission or expression later under circumstances that may enable it to be used as a regulatory operator or a mediator of group identity or expression of immunity systems? Is it developing a symbiotic relationship with the host or another virus in a toxin/anti-toxin sort of manner (discussed by my blog article on Dr Luis Villarreal and his work on group identity systems)? How does this concept explain the existence of this virus in a reservoir species?
- What is the risk for the spread of Ebola? To what extent is the risk environmental and to what extent can it be transmitted from person to person?
- Is Ebola being transmitted in a less than lethal form under our eyes without our knowledge?
- Can Ebola be spread by more species of animals than listed under the CDC website?
- How might Ebola change to become more transmissible to a greater variety of populations impacted by different environmental factors? How would this risk change if the Ebola virus were to combine with the seasonal flu in a variety of different ways?
Geological Factors
- What factors in Africa are most significant in the etiology of Ebola? Heat, humidity, coeexistence with and diversity of animal species, alkaline environments, carbon dioxide sequestration and outgassing (e.g. Lake Nyos), the Archaean basement substrate of the West African bedrock, granite, uranium, endospores such as bacillus anthracis, and natural nuclear fission reactors from underground uranium (Gabon)?
- What is the impact of the African mining fields? Iron, gold, lead, silver, arsenic, mercury , uranium and nickel are among products of mining. Nickel has a positive feedback impact on inflammatory markers.
- How do endospores such as bacillus anthracis fit into the story of Ebola, set in the mining context of West Africa, with its iron, gold, silver, arsenic, uranium, nickel and mercury, and the expression of inflammatory markers and feedback indicators?
- Are these various environmental issues constrained to Africa or are they present in other environments, and where do other similar environmental conditions exist? Do these conditions have to exist in the same place or can an individual experience them by exposure to a variety of locations? For example, Archaean basement layers of rock exist in the Arctic, in Svalbard, which I visited in 2005. How would exposure to Archaea and other factors present in West Africa differ from the situation in Svalbard where it is much colder! Where else can we find archaea and chiral substances?
- How do increases in solar radiation and changes in the Earth's magnetic field impact the expression of Ebola in Africa? To what extent would these factors affect the expression of Ebola in other areas of the planet?
Environment and Physiology
- Does the emergence of a disease that promotes bleeding have significance as it relates to climate change or other planetary or environmental factors? Is some environmental change occurring that would result in blood clotting more easily, something that would need to be countered by less viscous blood and changes in the coagulation cascade?
- How might the environmental factors in Africa affect blood coagulation? Through mitochondrial regulation as it is impacted by environment, haplogroups and uncoupling in oxidative phosphorylation? Through the impacts of oxygen reactive species? Through solar radiation, geomagnetic storms and cycles? Through the Warburg effect (which replaces aerobic respiration with glycolysis)? Through arsenic mining? Through positive feedback mechanisms involving hypoxemia and inflammatory responses?
- Is it possible that the Archaean basement layer of rock in West Africa impacts the blood coagulation cascade and the blood vasculature through chirality? Would concepts of fractal dimension and tortuosity explain concepts of blood coagulation and vascular inflammation and other disorders, including stroke and cancers, including those of the blood and lymphatic systems?
- What impact does the water people drink (and breathe through water vapor) impact people, including the impact on group identity systems and physiological parameters?
- Does the outgassing of carbon dioxide as a result of global warming, the release of iron from iron sequestered in the rock, and the release of endospores from sequestration, explain any of the natural events happening today, as regards vascular and coagulation issues?
- Is it possible that Ebola, as a disorder that promotes bleeding, developed as a feedback mechanism to counter the impact of increased blood coagulation due to the environmental impacts raised above?
- Bleeding may increase as blood coagulation factors are used up; does Ebola act to promote such bleeding to counter increases in clotting factors secondary to these environmental issues? Is it possible that Ebola thus impacts the regulatory mechanisms of the coagulation cascade?
Detection
- Could an easy detection test be done for Ebola using, for example, saliva? This might prove less expensive and easier to measure for initial testing prior to full blood workups if it was sufficiently sensitive and specific.
- Could the d-dimer test and PPT tests be used as early indicators of Ebola.
- Can a series of early indicators, including markers of respiratory and coagulation system function and exposure to certain environmental factors, be developed to ascertain risk patterns for specific populations?
- Where might the solution to Ebola be found? Only time will tell. Are lamprey VLR's a potential solution for isolating, detecting, and finding a cure for Ebola, considering their ability to detect bacillus anthracis and their affinity for carbohydrate glycoproteins? Considering the age of the filoviruses and the characteristics of Ebola itself, is this a potential area to investigate?
Does the emergence of Ebola reflect the re-emergence of ancient historical patterns? Have these patterns been carried by reservoir species from the depths of time to the particular victims of Ebola? Will Ebola adapt and spread elsewhere or re-emerge in other parts of the planet, independently?
Are the issues happening in West Africa an early indicator ('Canary in a Coal Mine') of planetary changes? These changes include changes in Earth's magnetic field, climate change, global warming and solar radiation, and downstream effects including release of sequestered minerals and gases such as carbon dioxide and methane from rock and oceans. These are all areas of concern. Historical examples of changes in Earth's magnetic field are shown over longer periods of time and more recent geologic time periods in this Wikipedia article on the Earth's Magnetic Field.
Finally, I am reminded of the childhood game, "Animal, vegetable or mineral" and associations with the "Tree of Life" (and probably, by extension, "The Tree of Good and Evil"). Ebola is a disease with a past, reflecting deep phylogeny and the rivers of time as embedded in the history of our rocks.
Sources:
marilyndunstan.blogspot.com
Evolution of Adaptive Immunity
Wikipedia:
Ebola virus disease
"The Hot Zone"
Kinshasha Highway
Archaea
Sense (molecular biology)
Messenger RNA
Reverse Transcriptase
Filoviridae
New World Monkey
Lake Nyos
Endospore
Bacillus Anthracis
Natural nuclear fission reactor
Nickel
Chirality
Sunlight
Earth's Magnetic Field
Oxidative Phosphorylation
Reactive Oxygen Species
Geomagnetic Storm
Warburg Effect
Glycolysis
Coagulation Cascade
Fractal Dimension
Tortuosity
Outgassing
Carbon Sequestion
Animal Sentinel
Earth's Magnetic Field-Geomagnetic Polarity
Earth's Magnetic Field-Brunhes Geomagnetism
Earth's Magnetic Field
World Health Organization:
Ebola Virus Disease
CDC:
CDC
Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease
2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (Outbreak Distribution Map)
Phys Org:
Ebola and Marburg Viruses May be Much Older Than Thought
JoVE Visualize: Anthrax lethal toxin inhibits translation of hypoxia inducible factor 1? and causes decreased tolerance to hypoxic stress
Geology and Mineral Resources of West Africa - The Archaean Basement
National Academy of Sciences: High-affinity lamprey VLRA and VLRB monoclonal antibodies
Berkeley Lab: Structure of the Ebola Virus Glycoprotein Bound to an Antibody from a Human Survivor
NASA Science News - Earth's Inconsistent Magnetic Field
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