The Vitoc Problem

The Vitoc Problem

Introduction

Cleared for Public Release.

As of 9th November, YC 112, this document is cleared for public release and dissemination by the Select Committee for Vitoxin Epidemiology under Parliamentary Resolution 163.2[1], as authorized by Chief Adrand Allsvert of Republic Security Services.

The extent of the Republic's anti-Vitoc Method research programme was kept meticulously secret prior to Resolution 163. The ever-present threat of Imperial agents and Mandate infiltrators meant that only a few knew its full extent, and most laboratories worked on a single aspect of the project in ignorance of all others. This partitioning of information was intended to mitigate the loss of data should one scientist or one facility be compromised and to limit the intelligence an enemy agent could obtain on the rest of the research network.

Such secrecy and security protocols slowed the progress of research significantly by constraining the distribution of information and limiting participation, but this was a sacrifice that Prime Minister Midular and the Select Committee concluded was worthwhile in light of the likelihood of retributive strikes or outright war, should the programme be discovered.

Now that a state of war exists between the Minmatar Republic and the Amarr Empire, San Matar Shakor has decreed that there is no further benefit in maintaining the complete secrecy of this project. Supplies of Insorum, a universal and permanent cure to all forms of Vitoxin infection, are held by the Minmatar Elders in secure locations and the programmes referred to in this document have therefore been released from Parliamentary control, to be pursued or not according to the decision of the corporations involved.

This document provides an overview of the Republic-wide research effort into non-Insorum cures for the virus used in the Vitoc Method and potential treatment and vaccine programmes over the last 5 years. It includes an overview of the Vitoc Method of enforced slavery, details of the symptoms caused by both the virus and its antidote and what is known of the mechanisms by which the two substances operate, followed by an overview of the most prominent research done in the field during that time.

The Vitoc Problem

A Minmatar slave is injected with Vitoxin.

The Vitoc Method of controlling slaves was first put into usage by the Amarr Empire a few centuries ago. The method involves injecting slaves with a toxin which will then kill them if they are not steadily provided with an antidote. The method was initially used only on slaves working as ship crews, then expanded into other areas that require highly-skilled slaves to conduct delicate work.

Across the Empire, the Vitoc Method is thought to be used on less than 10% of slaves. While this is a small percentage, it still amounts to a few billion individuals and thanks to intermittent peace deals with the Empire and the Mandate, and the actions of freedom fighters, there are also substantial numbers of former slaves in the Republic who are still ruled by the Vitoc regimen.

Roughly 15 years ago, the Amarr introduced a new refinement to the Vitoc Method. A viral agent that would stay in a subject's system forever, producing toxins that were deadly within 24 hours unless they were treated with Vitoc each and every day. This nameless toxin has been dubbed "Vitoxin" by Republic scientists in order to distinguish it from the Vitoc compound that acts as an antidote.

With the new viral agent, a slave's death without the antidote was particularly horrible, while the antidote itself was designed to be blissfully euphoric. This combination of incentive and punishment proved psychologically devastating. Incidents of slaves committing suicide by deliberately refusing or inciting Holders to refuse the antidote ceased almost completely and many informants acting as part of the underground freight route for slaves escaping the Empire turned back to their masters and betrayed those in their care, out of fear of the poison.

Over the years, the Republic has produced cures for Vitoxin many times, but each time, the virus mutates anew. The Amarr seem able to either control or predict these mutations sufficiently to have a new antidote already prepared and distributed each time the virus changes, but as yet, none of the combined efforts of the Republic, the Federation or the Sisters of Eve have yielded the ability to do the same.

Symptoms of Vitoxin

The symptoms of Vitoxin infection are, to some extent, dependant on the current state of mutation of the Vitoxin organism. Infection symptoms present within 24 - 48 hours of infection if the patient is not given the correct variant and dosage of the Vitoc antidote.

The following symptoms have presented in all cases of Vitoxin infection studied to date:

• Pain and swelling of the mouth, throat and tongue. This can lead to panic in the patient, shortness of breath, fever, difficulty swallowing, over-production of saliva in the mouth and mucus in the mouth and throat, spasmodic choking, followed in approximately 8% of cases by respiratory failure caused by blockage of the trachea.
• Gastrointestinal systems such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea, which commonly becomes bloody after 6 - 10 hours of the onset of Vitoc withdrawal. Severe presentation of such symptoms can lead rapidly to dehydration, low blood pressure and electrolyte anomalies arising as sodium and potassium are depleted from the blood.

If the subject has been infected with Vitoxin for a period of (typically) less than 1 - 2 weeks, the following additional symptoms commonly manifest during Vitoc withdrawal:

• Hallucination and delirium.
• Liver failure.
• Kidney failure.
• Heart failure.
• Progressive lung scarification, developing over a projected period of 1 - 2 weeks. Death by organ failure commonly occurs before this onsets to any serious degree.

Once the Vitoxin infection has become fully established in a subject's tissues (typically after 1 - 2 weeks), or in the case of accidental over-exposure, the following symptoms present rapidly over the course of a few hours to a day:

• Confusion brought on by short-term memory dysfunction and rapid-onset hormone imbalance.
• Hallucination and delirium.
• Erectile dysfunction.
• Seizures.
• Increased heart rate (triggered by rapid lowering of blood pressure).
• Muscular weakness.
• Pulmonary oedema. The build-up of fluid in the lungs is frequently signalled by complaints of itching in the chest, a "rattling" cough (possibly producing a bloody mucus), panic and shortness of breath.
• Rapidly developing lung scarification.
• Coma.
• Liver failure.
• Kidney failure.
• Injury to the heart.
• Death.

Mechanisms of Vitoxin

Typical structure of the Vitoxin virus.

The Vitoxin virus can be introduced into an individual's system in a number of ways. It can be ingested without harming the virus, but exact dosage levels can be erratic when administered in such a way. Injection is far more common in the Amarr Empire, along with an aerosol form, but Serpentis vessels have also been caught multiple times by Republic Fleet carrying a weaponized form of Vitoxin on raids against isolated asteroid colonies. The existence of such a weaponized form, suitable for aerial release over a planet, has added a greater urgency to the search for a cure.

The Vitoxin virus typically consists of a capsid or protein shell surrounding the viral DNA.

The capsid consists of a membranous layer composed of two layers of lipids interspersed with protein molecules, surrounding an icosahedral protein shell with projecting "spikes" that allow the virus to penetrate into the host's cells. The shell also has a number of projecting receptors, production of which appears to have been engineered into the virus to facilitate its interaction with Vitoc.

A mixed team from Eifyr and Co. and Sebiestor Tribe were able to establish that the process of Vitoxin infection follows typical viral paths when in the bloodstream. The lipoprotein bilayer adheres to the outer membranes and fuses with them, pushing the virus in its protein coat into the cell. The projecting "spikes" penetrate into the cell nucleus, releasing Vitoxin DNA into the cell. The DNA then uses the host cell's own reproductive apparatus to copy itself.

Vitoxin DNA is clearly a nanite-engineered structure. Rather than the conventional double helix structure, Vitoxin DNA consists of two long, highly redundant folded strings with a number of protruding amino acid structures. The Eifyr-Sebiestor team hypothesised that these "flanges" act to protect the Vitoxin DNA sequence from accidental mutation during mitosis by preventing the microtubules that separate chromosomes during cellular reproduction anchoring on to the alien DNA and dividing it in a position that would disrupt its deadly function or mutational cycle. Once the host cell has been taken over by the virus, it directs the cell to produce so-called "late proteins." These proteins are typically used to create a new protein coat in other viruses, but in the case of Vitoxin infection, they also cause the cell to manufacture a number of toxins which are released from the cell when the virus exits.

It was initially thought that Vitoxin only effects cells in the respiratory and gastric systems. Microbiologists from Republic University, however, found Vitoxin DNA in the bone marrow cells of deceased patients. Such latent viral colonies acts as a reservoir of infection; the bone marrow cells are unaffected by Vitoc treatments and thus allow the infection to return swiftly once Vitoc leaves the body after approximately 24 hours.

Virus Mutation

Vitoxin mutations. Bar = 100nm.

Viruses in general undergo genetic change by three main mechanisms. In "genetic drift," individual bases in the DNA or RNA mutate to other bases. Usually, such a point mutation does not change the protein that the gene encodes and so has no perceptible effect on the virus' actions, but others can produce advantageous evolutionary changes such as to antiviral drugs.

In Vitoxin, the DNA molecule is carefully protected against the most common cause of genetic drift - cosmic rays or other exposures to radiation - by the molecular "flanges" projecting intermittently from the DNA. These flanges absorb stray protons and mutate instead of the core of the DNA molecule.

"Antigenic shift" occurs when there is a major change in the genome of the virus. Like many viruses, Vitoxin has a segmented genome, which can be rearranged and combined, but unlike most natural viruses, Vitoxin does not appear to ever appear to exist as more than one strain at a time, so viral evolution does not occur through reassortment - the process by which two different strains of the same virus combine genes within a host cell to produce a new, unique "progeny" virus.

The sole form of mutation apparently available to Vitoxin is "genetic recombination." This is the process wherein a strand of DNA is broken and joins to the end of a different DNA molecule. This can occur when viruses infect cells simultaneously. Studies to date indicate that the positioning of the flanges controls, to an extent, which segments of the genome can break and reshuffle in this way, and thus appear to provide a portion of the necessary control over the virus' mutation and evolution. For the mutations to be fully predictable, however, the viral genome itself must be designed in such a way that a given property is the only possible successful outcome of recombination. It has been hypothesised that the viral DNA encodes its own future mutations in an endless cycle, or it must be triggered by an external agent, likely given to the subject in their Vitoc antidote.

Use of an external agent would suggest that, once slaves leave the “care” of their Holders, either mutation would cease or become unpredictable. This has not been observed in the case of slaves returned to the Republic and being treated with locally produced Vitoc analogues, so this would suggest that genetic encoding of future mutations is the likeliest method.

The greatest danger of Vitoxin lies in uncontrolled mutation. Even with the care devoted to the molecule's design and its inbuilt protections, it is not impossible for the DNA to be mutated by radiation, a simple strike from a cosmic ray, introduction into an unexpected environment or infection with a retro-virus.

During the Republic's studies into Vitoxin, such mutations have been deliberately induced, with potentially catastrophic consequences. In at least one case, the virus has become contagious and air-borne, infecting researchers, while in other, more controlled experiments, it has become retro-viral, changed the sites of its attack within the body or become more rapidly deadly in effect.

A retro-viral form of Vitoxin is a prospect of particular concern. Not only is there a risk it could enable infection to be passed from parent to child, it could also affect all clones of an individual where the stem cells necessary to seed the clone with the owner's DNA are taken after infection has occurred.

Point mutations are random, completely unpredictable in nature. There is no way that an antidote can be prepared for them beforehand. Should such a mutation one day unleash a contagious form of Vitoxin, the only thing that would stop a pandemic engulfing whole planets and perhaps even spreading further, would be rate at which the infected would die. And luck.

Symptoms of Vitoc

"Vitoc" is a compound administered to Vitoxin-infected slaves to provide a temporary antidote to the lethal effects of the virus. The exact composition of the compound is varied in accordance with the current mutation of Vitoxin in the subject's system - an evolution which Vitoc producers in the Amarr Empire appear to be able to predict by some mechanism which is, to outside agencies, as yet unknown. A great deal of time and effort has been devoted to unravelling this mechanism by laboratories across the Republic but while progress has been made, a successful method of predicting the necessary evolutions to the Vitoc formula has never been found.

Vitoc has been carefully designed to interact with the Vitoxin in a subject's body, not only nullifying the virus's lethal effect for approximately 24 hours but producing an addictive and euphoric effect. This effect is believed to have been deliberately engineered by Imperial biochemists to reduce a captive's ability to commit suicide by refusing the antidote and to create a chemical form of Hostage-Captor Syndrome (a psychological condition wherein an abductee bonds and empathises with his or her captors).

When Vitoc is introduced into the system of an individual already infected with Vitoxin, the following effects present within a period of 1 - 3 hours:

• Mydriasis (Abnormal pupil dilation).
• Loss of appetite.
• Increase in heart rate.
• Increase in blood pressure.
• Increased perspiration, leading to a danger of dehydration.
• Overwhelming euphoria.
• Increased activity of mirror neurons in the premotor cortex and the inferior parietal cortex, leading to a strong sense of empathy, intimacy and trust as well as an increased rate of learning by mimicry.
• Heightened production of neurotransmitters in sensory neurons, especially in auditory and tactile perception. Subjects have described a persistence of sensation in their skin and roughly 14% of cases have reported incidences of synaesthesia (translation of sensory input from one sense to another, such as feeling colours or seeing scents).
• Suppression of adrenaline and testosterone production, leading to a near-total abatement of any sense of fear, insecurity or aggression in the subject.
• The combination of increased empathy and suppression of stress-factors commonly leads to the subject becoming extremely loquacious, talking almost incessantly and having no reluctance to discuss intimate or anxiety-provoking topics. This property has made the Vitoc method a favoured tool of interrogation for Amarr and Ammatar intelligence divisions.
• Mild auditory hallucinations have been reported in 12% of cases and visual distortion in 1.2% of subjects interviewed[2].

Subjects appear to reach a plateau some 3 hours after being treated with the correct form and dosage of Vitoc. The euphoric effects diminish barring brief, periodic resurgences while the pacifying properties of Vitoc can remain active up to 12 hours after the substance was administered. As Vitoc beings to fade from the bloodstream, 16 - 20 hours after dosage, patients commonly complain of feeling great weariness and sleep only fitfully, while 65% have reported a distorted sense of the passage of time.

Over the long term, Vitoc has been shown to have neurotoxic properties that cause a lasting decrease in the brain's serotonin uptake sites, causing clinical depression. In 0.2% of cases, there is also damage to the amygdala, resulting chronic psychosis in the patient. To date, these effects have proven unresponsive to therapy.

Studies of Vitoc-Vitoxin interaction in animal brain structures (particularly rats) have also shown a marked diminishing of cognitive function - memory loss and an apparent reduction in basic problem solving skills. These have been tentatively linked to a reduced blood supply in the brain as cranial blood vessels become choked with excess serotonogenic nerve growth.

Even if a complete cure for Vitoxin could not be found, an alternative temporary treatment lacking the powerful side effects of Vitoc was judged to be an acceptable subject of research, in order to allow freed slaves a chance for an independent, dignified life.

Mechanisms of Vitoc

Vitoc indirectly stimulates the 5-HT1A receptors in the brain to release Oxytocin from the pituitary gland; Oxytocin, colloquially known as the "hormone of happiness" or "the love drug," is naturally released in the body in response to the contractions of certain highly innervated muscles, chiefly the contractions of the uterine walls during childbirth and in both men and women at the moment of orgasm. It is also produced in far smaller quantities in response to stimulation of the pituitary gland by sunlight on the skin.

Oxytocin is responsible for a number of important human emotional and behavioural processes, all of which are greatly to the benefit of the psychological dynamic of slavery. When produced to excess, as it is during Vitoc-Vitoxin interaction, it is also highly detrimental to the functioning of a patient as an independent adult, reducing them to a near-childlike state.

• Oxytocin is vital in the bonding process between mother and child after childbirth and is thought to also be involved in the formation of monogamous pairings during coitus. Subjects whose oxytocin production has been impaired by physical damage to the pituitary gland display little to no sense of connection to or affection for those around them, while those with high levels of oxytocin present in the brain (such as Vitoc users, new mothers and couples in the early stage of a pairing) display increased affection for and loyalty to the individuals around them. In the case of slaves, this includes those they work and are housed with and in particular, the person who provides them with Vitoc and thus, is present when the subject experiences peak levels of the resulting oxytocin production.
• Oxytocin also induces short-term memory lapses. After childbirth, the rush of oxytocin to the brain causes the memory of pain to fade, becoming less vivid, and the mother begins to feel separated from the event - she can remember what occurred intellectually and conclude that there was pain, but recollection of the pain itself is greatly diminished. In slavery, this is once again advantageous to the Holder, causing a subject to feel separated from the brutality common employed in order to administer Vitoxin and the first doses of Vitoc and which is rife in a slave's training and working environment[3].
• Oxytocin acts as a suppressant in the amygdala, the portion of the human brain responsible for the ability to feel fear. Without fear, a slave becomes willing to work in dangerous circumstances or beyond their own limits and is more trusting of his or her overseers. In such a circumstance, a slave can be inclined to believe statements that their captivity or a given punishment is "for their own good." This state of trust also makes a slave more inclined to accept future doses of Vitoc without resistance.
• Studies conducted by Sebiestor Tribe personnel have shown that introduction of oxytocin into the cerebro-spinal fluid of a wide variety of mammals can cause even a virgin female to accept foreign offspring, displaying archetypal maternal behaviour even to young of another species. Both females and males treated in such a way showed protective behaviour towards young specimens introduced to their environment. Conversely, when the same mammals were treated with oxytocin antagonists, reducing the effects of the hormone, they were found to neglect their own young, failing to feed their offspring and leaving them unattended for long periods of time. In some cases, the young were even consumed by subjects treated with oxytocin antagonists.

Studies conducted by Eifyr & Co. personnel into the composition of 1.05 million Vitoc samples gathered from across the Empire confirmed suspicions that Vitoc is a blend of synthesised chemicals selected to interact with a subject's body and the Vitoxin it contains in different ways.

A pivotal factor in neutralising the lethal effects of Vitoxin is the structure of the terminal groups of molecules in the antidote - the clusters of atoms protruding from the molecule bind to receptors on the protein coating of the Vitoxin virus, effectively blocking it from interacting with the membranes of cells in the host. This stops the virus injecting DNA into the cell that will cause the cell to produce the toxins that typically cause the death of the host.

The Eifyr & Co. team were able to confirm independent research[4] that identified one substance that seemed common to all samples. Modified forms of methylenedioxymethampethamine (MDMA) were present in 69% of samples, while all contained some variant of the molecule with no more than a 2% difference in the structure of the terminal groups and no more than 17.6% difference in molecular structure overall. Receptors for these terminal groups were found on 287 of the 340 permutations of the outer protein coat of the Vitoxin virus currently catalogued in the Pator Tech School's database.

Administration of pure MDMA to a subject causes release of oxytocin from the pituitary gland and produces a set of symptoms very similar to those of Vitoc as a whole. In the biochemical environment of a Vitoxin-infected human host, other synthesised molecules in the Vitoc compound were demonstrated to react with the proto-MDMA molecules, creating molecular rings (or in some cases, long, branching chains) that bond to sites around the outer protein shell. Pure MDMA is then released into the blood as a waste product.

Research into Potential Curative Technologies

See: Vitoxin Cure

Conclusion

Research continues at The Forlorn Hope in Yrmori.

The Vitoc method is more than a form of control. The deaths induced by Vitoxin are abhorrent - slow and tortuously painful, while the euphoric properties of Vitoc make it an excellent tool for brainwashing, replacing human dignity and free will with chemically-induced trust and even love.

These drugs currently control the lives of over a billion people across New Eden and the vast majority of them are Minmatar, which makes this a problem of essential interest for the Republic.

The Minmatar Republic's covert research programme into the Vitoc method has taken many approaches to the problem. Some few methods have been found that will slow the progress of Vitoxin infection and the toxic build-up associated with it, while other programmes have sought to find a temporary antidote that does not have the debilitating and degrading mental and emotional effects of Vitoc. But a secondary problem is involved - an economic one. In order to ensure that all have equal access to treatment, regardless of who they are, any treatment costs need to be within the means of the government to provide, making a few otherwise effective treatments useless to the effort as a whole.

Vitoxin is a threat not only to those slaves and former slaves infected with it, but to human life all across New Eden. An accidental mutation beyond the ability of Amarr holders to predict or control could result in a devastating plague, and it is only a matter of time before such a mutation occurs.

Now that Insorum has been obtained, much of the research outlined in this document is obsolete. Yet still it continues; Insorum itself is a relatively unknown substance. Should problems arise with it in future, this research is the Republic's last safety net against the Empire's darkest legacy.

Footnotes

1. A parliamentary resolution to disclose pre-war scientific information to the general public, as the worst has already happened. 163.2 is the second amended version of the resolution, which was passed by both houses of Parliament.
2. In a study of 250,000 Vitoxin-infected returnees to the Republic, undertaken from YC 107 - 109.
3. YC 108 study by the Sisters of Eve showed that 60% of slaves examined displayed signs of physical injuries afflicted as punishment in the preceding 10 years, while a further 3% had no physical injuries but reported receiving psychological punishments in the same period.
4. "Curing the Poison - Electus Matari's Research into a Permanent Cure for the Vitoc Method," published by Re-Awakened Technologies Inc, YC 110.06.07.