Exploiting the human body, H1N1 virus

Creating your very own N1H1 variant

Currently, the H1N1 virus is running rampant (46,000+ cases) throughout the nation and the "official" flu season doesn't start until Oct 4th. Like all viruses, H1N1 is made up of a DNA sequence, or code. The most amazing part is that it only takes about 3.2 Kbytes of data to code itself. A worm like Conficker takes over 112 Kbytes! Always striving for ultimate efficiency, it looks like Mother Nature has figured out how to write some super streamlined code. Deadly code at that. I came across this fascinating H1N1 analysis in a blog by Andrew “bunnie” Huang so wanted to share the cliff notes with you all. Almost all of this information has been quoted out of his blog so full credit goes to bunnie.

H1N1 is coded in DNA that is then executed as RNA to produce the output that is proteins. Here is bunnie's excellent explanation:

For those not familiar with molecular biology, DNA is information-equivalent to RNA on a 1 to 1 mapping; DNA is like a program stored on disk, and RNA is like a program loaded into RAM. Proteins are the output of running an RNA program.

It turns out that just like computer worms, H1N1 is coded to attack using very specific vectors. For example, Conficker was programmed to attack TCP port 445 (among others). H1N1 is likewise programmed to attack a specific part of our bodies. Bunnie explains:

If you thought of organisms as computers with IP addresses, each functional group of cells in the organism would be listening to the environment through its own active port. So, as port 25 maps specifically to SMTP services on a computer, port H1 maps specifically to the windpipe region on a human. Interestingly, the same port H1 maps to the intestinal tract on a bird. Thus, the same H1N1 virus will attack the respiratory system of a human, and the gut of a bird.

Here is an example of what the genetic code of the H1N1 virus looks like:
atgaaggcaa tactaatagt tctgctatat acatttgcaa ccgcaaatgc agacacatta
According to bunnie, "each symbol represents 2 bits" so the above line would be 120 bits of information. If you look at a H1N1 decode published by NCBI like this one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/GU014778 you'll see that the virus has 29 such lines of code. So if we take 29 x 120bits we get around 3480 bits. Then once you add in the other DNA information it comes out to around 3.4Kbytes in size! That is small! Bunnie has this to say about H1N1:

So it takes about 25 kilobits — 3.2 kbytes — of data to code for a virus that has a non-trivial chance of killing a human. This is more efficient than a computer virus, such as MyDoom, which rings in at around 22 kbytes.
It’s humbling that I could be killed by 3.2kbytes of genetic data. Then again, with 850 Mbytes of data in my genome, there’s bound to be an exploit or two.

Interestingly enough it is possible for you to hack the H1N1 virus to create your own more deadly variant, just like a computer virus variant. This is done by manipulating the DNA sequence. Here is a virus mutation example by bunnie:

Here’s how:
The Nature article notes, for example, that variants of the PB2 Influenza gene with Glutamic acid at position 627 in the sequence has a low pathogenicity (not very deadly). However, PB2 variants with Lysine at the same position is more deadly.
…
A single base-pair change, flipping two bits, is perhaps all you need to turn the current less-deadly H1N1 swine flu virus into a more deadly variant.

And if you are skeptical that hacking a virus to create a new, more deadly, variant is possible in real life I have some bad news. Check out this paper for it has already been done [Neumann, G. et al Generation of influenza A viruses entirely from cloned cDNA. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 96, 9345-9350 (1999)]

UGH!! So in a nutshell bunnie is telling us that not only is it the case that H1N1 is coded incredibly tight but just changing a couple bits around can drastically change its deadlyness. Let's just hope it doesn't mutate and spread... Um, I'm going to find my biohazard suit just in case!

Bunnie's Blog on N1H1 with all the gory tech details. It is a great read!
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=353

Here is the Nature Magazine article bunnie references
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7249/full/nature08157.html



The opinions and information presented here are my PERSONAL views and not those of my employer. I am in no way an official spokesperson for my employer.

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