[thedoc]

Dear Chris,

I'm wondering if there are any naturally-occurring beneficial viruses, and in particular, in the human body?

Thank you so much for the best podcasts on the web!

My very best wishes,

Kathlyn Powell
Asked by Kathlyn Powell


                                        Visit the webpage for the podcast in which this question is answered.

 

[Nizzle]

Yes, there are bacteria (strains of E. coli) that live in our intestinal flora and metabolize Vitamin K₂ for us.

[Bored chemist]

E coli and its like are not viruses.
However there are viruses which kill bacteria and they can be beneficial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy

[CliffordK]

Cowpox may be considered a beneficial virus...

Well, it was a few years ago at least.

[cheryl j]

Well anything that is parasitic, explodes healthy cells in order to release copies of itself into your system, or potentially messes with your DNA, is probably not going to be benefitial. Still, you'd think by chance alone there might one virus that contributed something useful. A few years back there was a big story in a lot of newspapers about influenza infection causing remissions in some cancers, but I've never seen anything about it since, and wonder if it was disproven.

[Nizzle]

Woops, sorry about the E.coli mishap. I must've had a temporarily reading disorder

There are bactericidal viruses (example: T4 bacteriophages) and few cases have been documented where a person was accidentally cured from a bacterial infection by getting a viral infection at the same time, but they were more exceptions and never scientifically reproducible.

If the bacterial infection would be a greater health risk than the viral infection, than that virus would be considered beneficial.

More and more, viruses are engineered to fight bacterial infections or even cancer.. Example

[Nick]

I'm sure that if we removed all viruses the balance of nature would get messed up somehow and therefore I think viruses are beneficial.

[Vinaykumar Hallur]

Well there has been a virus called HS101 which has been approved in china  for the treatment of head and neck cancers

[Jan]

I had the same question and this article might shed some light onto the topic... :-)
http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/content/58/4/531.full