Today you’ll learn about a zombie virus recovered from the arctic permafrost and brought back to life, some good news about 26 Australian animal species that have been brought back from the brink, and how a new pill could potentially limit the levels of “bad” cholesterol in the body.
Today you’ll learn about a zombie virus recovered from the arctic permafrost and brought back to life, some good news about 26 Australian animal species that have been brought back from the brink, and how a new pill could potentially limit the levels of “bad” cholesterol in the body.
Zombie Virus
Back From the Brink
Bad Cholesterol
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/zombie-virus-back-from-the-brink-bad-cholesterol
[SFX: INTRO MUSIC/WHOOSH]
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today you’ll learn about a zombie virus recovered from the arctic permafrost and brought back to life, some good news about 26 Australian animal species that have been brought back from the brink, and how a new pill could potentially limit the levels of “bad” cholesterol in the body.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Hey, Nate, can we talk about zombie viruses?
NATE: We can, but that doesn't mean that we have to, if you ask me to. Do we have to?
CALLI: We kind of do, yes. And it's not just because it's a super cool segment for the podcast, but because scientists have started finding ancient viruses in melting Arctic permafrost and bringing them back to life.
NATE: Yeah, You're kidding me, right?
CALLI: No, I kind of wish I was. Jean-Michel Clavarie, an emeritus professor of medicine and genomics in Marseilles, France, has been finding and studying viruses frozen in the permafrost since 2014. He and his team inserted a 30,000 year old virus into cultured cells. So just cells that are designed to live in the laboratory environment which revived it. They did it again in 2015 and have recently published research in the journal Viruses showing that several new strains that were gathered in different locations across Siberia could infect cultured amoeba cells, which is important because this proves it's not just a one off successful experiment. In case you don't know, and amoeba cell is just a one celled organism.
NATE: I think the first and most important question is are we all going to die?
CALLI: I mean, eventually from this? Probably not.
NATE: Okay. Why doesn't that make me feel much better?
CALLI: Let me back up a little bit. Well, we'll talk about something else. First, Let's talk about permafrost.
NATE: WIll talking about permafrost make me feel better?
CALLI: Absolutely not. Because you see, permafrost is meant to stay permanently frozen.
NATE: It just. That would be why it's called permafrost.
CALLI: Sure, you could say that. Yeah. The frozen tundra has existed for thousands of years. And permafrost isn't just cold. It also lacks oxygen and doesn't get any light. It turns out those conditions are perfect for preserving animals and the microorganisms that live on and around them. Permafrost is different from an ice sheet on the ground because it's generally buried underneath vegetation and dirt, which means the remains of ancient animals are buried along with it.
NATE: So why are they digging up these viruses?
CALLI: Yeah, they don't have to. Climate change is doing the work for them. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average. So more and more of that permafrost.
NATE: Is not so perma.
CALLI: You got it. Dr. Clavarie, the author and lead researcher of the recent report on the zombie viruses, wanted to sound an alarm to the world that we just don't know what's going to come out of the ground and we can't possibly understand the potential consequences. Massive sections of ground are collapsing, sinkholes appearing out of nowhere, and scientists are finding all sorts of mummified creatures that have been extinct for thousands of years.
NATE: Are these viruses a danger to us?
CALLI: In short, no. Oh, well, he was able to revive them. They are genetically only able to infect amoebas. But this groundbreaking research shows that viruses can live for a very long time in those conditions. The oldest one he studied is estimated to be about 48,500 years old. And if these otherwise harmless viruses can survive, then what else could be living down there? We just don't know. What if some ancient microorganism comes to the surface that our bodies aren't ready for?
NATE: That's not terrifying, even just a little bit. No, no, no, no Terror. None. None. Terrifying.
CALLI: I've got some more bad news. There is a great chance that thawing could uncover and release radioactive and chemical waste from the Cold War, which could disrupt entire ecosystems and actually accelerate thawing, creating a feedback loop.
NATE: Good. Good viruses, radioactive waste. Anything else we want to just throw in there while we're at it?
CALLI: Anthrax.
NATE: Oh, no, no.
CALLI: Yeah. An outbreak in Siberia in 2016 was likely due to deeper thawing.
NATE: Okay. Please tell me there's, like, some good news somewhere. Anywhere about this.
CALLI: The truth is, there's not much good that comes from thawing permafrost. The real good in this story is the fact that scientists are beginning to tell the story in the first place. The best thing we can do is stop the permafrost from melting. But we also need to know what we're dealing with if we fail to stop it. So the knowledge is power.
NATE: Well, there's a lot of bad stuff happening, but on the good side, you know about it.
CALLI: The more you know.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: What do the bridled nail-tailed wallaby, the boodie, and the golden bandicoot have in common?
CALLI: Okay, This is like a game of really bad Mad Libs. I don't know. They've all got really cute names. Are these animals?
NATE: They are. And while you're not wrong about the names, that is not in fact, the. Answer I was looking for. These Australian creatures are among 26 species that have recently been removed from the threatened species list.
CALLI: Oh good. It's a good news story we need after the last one.
NATE: It's actually a great news story. And not just because these 15 mammals, eight birds, four frogs, one reptile and a fish have made an amazing comeback. There is a bigger story here that could offer a glimmer of hope to other threatened species around the globe.
CALLI: The golden bandicoot is a good boy. Yes, he's a symbol of hope for other species. Yes, he is. Okay. That hurt my own heart.
NATE: Okay. Well, let's talk about the research. A team led by Dr. John Woinarski at Charles Darwin University in Australia decided to take a deeper look at the animals that had been listed as threatened under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act between 2020 22. And what they found shocked them. Not only had the 26 species listed in their report recovered, but they reconfirmed that three species that had been previously delisted were in fact recovered.
CALLI: This is not a story you hear about a lot these days.
NATE: That's the thing. There is the occasional de-listing, but they generally don't indicate anything like a full recovery. And it's also true that so much of the world's biodiversity is taking a hit. Some claim that we are actually in the midst of a mass extinction event. And not to put too fine a point on it, but despite the 26 species that have been taken off the threatened list, there are far, far more species landing on that list each year than are being removed.
CALLI: See, that part feels pretty hopeless.
NATE: That is what makes this story so incredible. It is proof that there is actually cause for hope. In fact, that was one of the aims of the report to provide a way forward and inject a little optimism into an otherwise bleak situation.
CALLI: Okay, awesome. So going back to the Golden Bandicoot.
NATE: Let's look at another species that was on that list, one that is probably a little bit more familiar. The humpback whale.
CALLI: Okay. When I was little, one of the jobs I really wanted was to be a marine biologist, and it was my lifelong dream to help save the humpback whales. Are you telling me they're no longer endangered?
NATE: You did it.
CALLI: They did it. Who did.
NATE: This? This is a pretty good example of conservation at work. They were driven to the brink of extinction by whaling operations. But once that practice ended in the 1980s, at least for the most part, the population began to spring back like other mammals on the list, like our bandicoot friend. The introduction of a predator nearly wiped them out, but conservation efforts actually reversed the trend.
CALLI: And in the case of the humpback, we were the predators.
NATE: True. But we are also the conservationists.
CALLI: Okay. So were we hunting the bandicoot?
NATE: No. But there were predators introduced that nearly took it out, namely the dreaded cat and the fox.
CALLI: We just named again two of my favorite animals. I love them.
NATE: I know you love them and they love bandicoots. They love. They love eating them.
CALLI: Okay. Grim.
NATE: Yeah, Well, just like with the humpback, a plan to save them was coordinated by government agencies and conservation groups. In the case of the bandicoot, predators were eliminated.
CALLI: They eliminated cats.
NATE: From the habitat, and the population was isolated and allowed to recover. Not all the species recovered in this particular way, but for all of them, their success was a product of focused conservation efforts. In other words, when it comes to other animals that are struggling out there.
CALLI: We can save them if we try.
NATE: Exactly. Not every threatened or endangered animal is going to be successfully recovered, but this study proves that conservation efforts can work, but not unless we try.
CALLI: And that's the kind of good news we could all use right now. And it's good news. Yes, it is. Yes, I really can't do that. That's awful.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Unfortunately, having high cholesterol is pretty common and often fatal. But there's a new pill in town that can reduce bad cholesterol, and it's by a pretty significant margin.
NATE: You say bad cholesterol, and maybe this is just a blind spot for me, but I don't know if I actually know the difference between good and bad cholesterol.
CALLI: That is totally fair. So when we say good or bad cholesterol, it's actually shorthand for high density lipoprotein or HDL and low density lipoprotein or LDL. So HDL is good cholesterol since it sends cholesterol into the liver. And once it gets there, your liver removes cholesterol from your bloodstream. The reason that's good is because if too much cholesterol builds up in your blood, it can create a sort of plaque on your artery walls that can narrow or block your arteries, which is a condition known as atherosclerosis. This will not only reduce your blood flow, but may even create a blood clot if the plaque breaks apart. And it could even cause you to have a stroke or heart attack.
NATE: Sounds like HDL is living up to its name as the good cholesterol. And I guess that means LDL is the bad cholesterol.
CALLI: Yep. LDL sends cholesterol into your arteries directly. The plaque buildup happens a lot faster, so it's pretty likely you're setting yourself up for atherosclerosis if you don't monitor your LDL intake. But thankfully, a team of researchers has created a new pill that can reduce LDL in a pretty meaningful way.
NATE: For anyone with high cholesterol levels. That's great news. Tell me more about this thing.
CALLI: Okay. I'm going to throw a couple of acronyms at you here, so bear with me. It's called M.K. 0616.
NATE: Is that a robot in Star Wars? I think it is.
CALLI: Listen, it gets better.
NATE: Oh.
CALLI: So there's a gene in our body known as PCSK9.
NATE: Definitely a robot in Star Wars, huh?
CALLI: PCSK9 gives the body instructions on how to create a protein to regulate how much cholesterol we have in our blood. If we have less PCSK9, our livers are able to more effectively break down bad cholesterol. And that's what MK0616. Does it inhibits PCSK9 to slow down our LDL intake?
NATE: I don't remember them talking about cholesterol and Star Wars, but that's good to know. Okay. This is this is interesting stuff. Has anything like this been done before?
CALLI: PCSK9 inhibitors are already pretty common when it comes to cholesterol reduction, but the older methods generally use an injection applied under the skin. As far as we know, this is the first time M.K 0616 has been used orally and the study on this pill was insanely successful.
NATE: That sounds great and very promising. How did they perform the study?
CALLI: Well, they got together more than 380 people with high LDL levels that were associated with either a risk for heart disease or a diagnosed heart disease. Each one of them was split up at random into five groups and was given a placebo or a few different strength doses of MK0616. For eight weeks, the subjects took a daily dose stopped, and then the researchers compared their bad cholesterol levels from before and after. Finally, they monitored the subjects for another eight weeks to see if they had any nasty side effects.
NATE: The suspense is killing me. I already know the pill worked because you said it did, but how well did it work?
CALLI: It was huge, actually. Anybody who took the 30 milligram doses of MK 0616 had their LDL levels dropped by over 60%. 18 milligram patients weren't too far behind at 59%. 12 milligram patients had 55% drops, and even the smallest dosage of six milligrams still saw a substantial 41% drop. So for those of you playing at home, that's anywhere between 40 and 60% or more bad cholesterol eliminated by this pill. What makes it even better is that under normal circumstances, there can be other hints that we have too much bad cholesterol in our body, like a protein known as ApoB, but MK 0616 reduces any levels of that too.
NATE: Okay. I got to say, this sounds amazing. Like it sounds too good. So, I mean, there's got to be a catch.
CALLI: Well, that's what I thought too. But honestly, there's no catch. You remember how they monitored the subjects for eight weeks to look for any nasty side effects? They didn't find any. Not a single one. Keep in mind, this is just one study, so they're going to need to hold some more trials to confirm that. M.K. 0616 is safe for everybody, but at this stage, all signs point to this being a bit of a godsend in the world of cholesterol maintenance and heart health. 60% of the patients were taking something called statins during the study, which is another drug treatment for high cholesterol, which means the two can be done together. And the fact that this drug is oral means treatment is more accessible and maybe one day more affordable.
NATE: All right. So I can just stop looking after my cholesterol. I'm going to have a cheeseburger now. I'll have a cheeseburger and a pill.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: Scientists have revived a zombie virus that had been locked up in the arctic permafrost of Siberia for over 48,000 years. But don’t worry, this virus poses no threat to humans. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t dangerous virus, bacteria, and other toxins just waiting to air out.
NATE: Researchers in Australia reviewed a list of threatened species and found that no fewer than 26 of them had recovered to the point of being removed from the list. Conservation efforts are to thank, which is great news for other endangered animals around the world and the conservationists working to save them.
CALLI: Cholesterol’s a pretty easy thing to lose track of, which can be quite bad for our bodies - even leading to death. But thankfully, a new pill has been made that limits the amount of “bad” cholesterol that stays in our bloodstream by as much as sixty percent.