Department of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jan;28(2):1287-1291. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-11234-9. Epub 2020 Oct 17.
Global warming is one of the major challenges facing humanity. The increase in the Earth's temperature and thawing of ancient ice release viable viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms which were trapped for thousands and millions of years. Such microorganisms may belong to novel microbial species, unknown genotypes of present pathogens, already eradicated pathogens, or even known pathogens that gained extremely robust characteristics due to their subjection to long-term stress. These worries drew more attention following the death of a child by ancient anthrax spores in Siberian in 2016 and the reconstruction of smallpox and Spanish flu genomes from ancient frozen biological samples. The present review illustrates some examples of recently recovered pathogens after being buried for millions of years, including some identified viable ancient viruses, bacteria and even other forms of life. While some pathogens could be revived, genomes of other ancient pathogens which could not be revived were re-constructed. The present study aims to highlight and alarm the hidden aspect of global warming on the international public health, which represents future threats from the past for humanity.
全球变暖是人类面临的主要挑战之一。地球温度的升高和古老冰川的融化释放了大量的病毒、细菌、真菌和其他微生物，这些微生物被封存在那里已经有数百万年甚至数千万年了。这些微生物可能属于新型微生物物种，也可能是现有病原体未知的基因型，或者是已经被根除的病原体，甚至可能是已知的病原体，由于它们长期受到压力，已经获得了极其顽强的特性。2016 年西伯利亚一名儿童死于古老炭疽孢子，以及从小丑和西班牙流感的古老冷冻生物样本中重建天花病毒基因组后，这些担忧引起了更多关注。本综述列举了一些最近从埋藏了数百万年的生物样本中重新发现的病原体的例子，包括一些已经鉴定的存活的古代病毒、细菌甚至其他形式的生命。虽然有些病原体可以被复活，但有些无法复活的古老病原体的基因组则被重新构建。本研究旨在强调和警示全球变暖对国际公共卫生的潜在影响，这是过去对人类的未来威胁。
