Virus trillions live in your body. Ai is trying to find them.

Viruses that we know best are those that get us ill – flu viruses that send us to bed, and smallpox viruses that can send us to the grave.

But fit people are full of viruses that do not cause a disease. Scientists estimate that dozens of billions of viruses live in us, although they only identified them. The extensive majority are bland and some may even be beneficial. We do not know for sure, because most of the so -called human wirurom remains a mystery.

This year, five universities cooperate with an unprecedented hunt to identify these viruses. They collect saliva, stool, blood, milk and other samples of thousands of volunteers. Five -year effort, called Human Virome program And supported by $ 171 million in federal financing, check samples with artificial intelligence systems, hoping that we will know the human virus affects our health.

“I think that the data we had so far would flood,” said Frederic Bushman, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the program leaders.

. First tips Human Viome appeared over a hundred years ago. Analyzing feces samples, scientists discovered viruses called Fags that can infect bacteria in the intestines. Fags also appeared in the mouth, lungs and skin.

Scientists later he found viruses This infected our own cells without causing any solemn symptoms. AND The vast majority For example, the world’s population is infected with, for example, cytomegalovirus, which can colonize almost any organ.

In the early 2000s, novel genetic sequencing methods prompted scientists to find even more viruses in saliva, blood and stool. Technology also allowed them to estimate the number of viruses in our bodies by counting copies of viral genes. It turned out that every gram of the stool contains billions of phags.

The intestines of each person may contain hundreds or even a thousand species of phagi. But when biologists pass from person to the personThey will find many viral species in those that are missing in another – even when these people are married. The more people study the scientists, the more phag species they discover.

“I expect tens of millions of species,” said Evelien Adriaenssens, a phage biologist at the Quadram Institute in Norwich, England.

Viruses infecting human cells turned out to be unexpectedly varied. In 1997, scientists from Japan checked the patient’s blood A completely new virus family This turned out to be known as aneloviruses. Last month test He revealed over 800 novel species of anellovirus, which gives a total number of known species over 6800.

Some recent studies on the human virus have questions about the very definition of the virus. The standard virus consists of genes containing a protein coating, which are coded either in a two -tone DNA or single -none RNA. But scientists find that our bodies are also home to extremely tiny Free RNA rings.

Scientists are still blind for the majority of human Virome. The viruses are so tiny that imperceptible internal cells may lurk. Some can even sneak their genes to the bottom of the host cell, where they can hide for years from repetition.

“Completely novel tools will have to come in,” said Dr. Pardis Sabeti, a calculation biologist at Harvard Th Th Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Sabeti and her colleagues are developing an artificial intelligence system that Virome will employ the human program to discover the subtle features of viral genes.

Researchers will then try to find out what all these viruses in our body do. Scientists traditionally treated phagies like bacterial predators, absolutely killing them to make more copies of themselves. But recent experiments indicate A much more complicated relationship.

“They don’t fight for death,” said Colin Hill, a microbiologist from APC Microbiome Ireland, a research center in Cork. “They are in partnership.”

For example, in the human body, phaga usually does not exterminate the host bacteria. And bacteria can employ their warm relationships with phags, which can transfer genes from one microbus of the host to another, probably increasing their survival.

This partnership can also be good for our health. Recent studies suggest that phagi distribute defensive genes, which their hosts can employ to stop attacking pathogens. AND Cytomegaloviruses It can aid defend us against skin cancer.

Dr Shadmehr Demehri, immunologist from Harvard Cancer and his colleagues found evidence that cytomegaloviruses become energetic in skin cells that were damaged by the sun. Infected cells produce viral proteins that draw the attention of nearby immune cells. They attack damaged cells – and therefore they can prevent them from going to cancer.

Dr. Demehri’s studies showed this human papillomaIt can also aid destroy skin cells that are threatened with tumor formation.

“This is a change in the paradigm in how we think about viruses in general,” said Dr. Demehri.