Vitoxin Cure
Research into Potential Curative Technologies
Nanotechnology
The presence of bind points on the protein capsid of Vitoxin means that molecules without the side-effects of MDMA can be designed to fit the receptors without necessitating the use of Vitoc.
While the regular mutation of Vitoxin means such molecules frequently need to be redesigned and introduced to the patient, a group of independent scientists[1] came upon the idea of using the virus' own techniques and created a group of nanomachines that could produce the required molecules inside the body. An assortment of nanostructures were created that could be activated or deactivated in combinations to create a molecule of the correct form to fit the receptors.
In order to determine the form of Vitoxin present and the structure of its receptors, the patient must provide a blood sample each day to be analyzed. Through capsuleer connections, the scientists were able to obtain and reverse engineer a control system using crystal resonance technology obtained from Guristas in Venal. Such technology is normally used in pilot implants for rapid, adaptive control over shield systems; the scientists designed and prototyped a far smaller system that would resonate with the nanomachines within the patient's body.
After success with tests of the initial prototype on animals, the system was refined into a single syringe. A patient can use the syringe to take a sample of their own blood, which is then analyzed by chips within the syringe. The chips cause the crystal to resonate at a certain frequency which causes the required nanomachines to activate, while the rest remain dormant. The nanomachines then use waste products in the bloodstream to engineer molecules - typically proteins - that will bind the Vitoxin molecules and prevent cellular infection.
The prototype syringe system has been successfully tested on two human patients, but the technique is not suitable for mass production on the scale required by the Republic. Even the minute resonator required for the injector costs approximately 1 billion ISK to obtain and engineer to the necessary specifications and there is, as yet, no data on the operational lifetime of such a device, so it may need to be replaced once or more during a patient's life. This puts the purchase of such of a device outside the reach of any but the most wealthy. Further research into this method was discontinued in order to channel funds towards finding a more accessible form of treatment.
Virophagi
Studies have shown Vitoxin to be lethal to most animals, whether ingested, inhaled or injected, but a study by Dr. Anders Pfeng of Irdese Penter Memorial Hospital on Rens IV following a laboratory accident, discovered that fedos can safely digest the virus.
Dr. Pfeng's research uncovered the existence of bacterial colonies in the fedo's digestive tract. The bacterium, which he named Bacillus Omnivorum, is approximately 2 micrometres long, surrounded with a fringe of flagellae which the bacterium "beats" to move around. Omnivorum secretes a protein hydrolase capable of digesting Vitoxin or other viruses and was found by Dr. Pfeng to be capable of surviving and reproducing in a pH range from 1.8 - 7.4. The upper-end of this range includes the average pH of human blood.
While the bacteria proved able to eradicate Vitoxin in vitro, tests in primates found that the bacterium also attacked muscle tissue in the host, causing substantial damage to the heart. It was therefore judged unsuitable to use on humans in its present form.
Vaccination
In late 108, defecting biochemist Dr. Jurgen Prout was rescued from the Ammatar Mandate by a team from the Republic Fleet Marine Corps. Dr. Prout had been researching the possibility of creating an inert form of Vitoxin that could be used to train the body's immune system to target and destroy the virus and resumed his work with a joint team from Republic University and Ervik Pharmaceuticals.
The team performed an extensive study of Vitoxin's mutation, trying to identify those DNA sequences connected to the production of toxins in the hope of excising them while still leaving a sufficiently similar virus that the auto-immune system would react to Vitoxin after being exposed to the inert form. Dr. Prout and his team engineered an extensive set of cutter enzymes which they used to clip sequences out of the viral DNA molecule, then would grow and test the resulting virus for toxicity.
Without an algorithm to predict mutation patterns, however, the project was heavily impeded by the virus' evasive changes in form, which were sufficiently radical to make vaccination appear impossible.
In early 111, Dr. Prout and three members of his team were found dead in a sealed laboratory after apparently contracting a contagious form of Vitoxin from a primate on whom a spliced form had been tested. Following this event, all research involving modification of Vitoxin DNA was banned until such a time as a better understanding of its mutation pattern has been obtained.
Accelerated Mutation
Working in association with Dr. Prout, an Yrmori-based team led by Dr. Mishkala Osnirdottir of Core Complexion sought an alternative route to creating an inactive form of Vitoxin.
Using a Proton Acceleration Array developed by her own company, Dr. Osnirdottir's team barraged samples of Vitoxin with gamma rays, increasing the nuclear mass of single atoms in the base sequences of the viral DNA and giving them a positive charge, which caused the arrangement of atoms in nearby group to be drawn inwards, changing the terminal structure's arrangement and drawing the protective flanges inwards.
This ionization caused unpredictable mutations in the Vitoxin DNA, sometimes causing flange DNA to be merged into the structure or causing sequences to break and rejoin in different positions.
Each mutated strain was then tested on rats to see if the toxic properties remained. In 1,380 out of 3,000 samples tested, the toxic properties of Vitoxin were removed by these forced mutations. 230 samples were found to be deadly within an hour of administration and 51 were found to be contagious, eradicating the laboratory's rat population. The remaining samples tested continued to display the core properties of Vitoxin, illustrating the virus' highly effective defences against accidental mutation.
None of the inert samples were found to retain enough similarity to the original virus to be used as part of a vaccination programme, but the data collected contributed greatly to an understanding of the active and redundant sequences in Vitoxin DNA, which led to the team switching their focus to producing more such data.
Dr. Osnirdottir began construction of a Tachyon Bombardment Array (a "TBA" for short) in early 111. Based on the technology embodied in heavy Amarr weaponry, the Array was intended to gather data on past states of the Vitoxin DNA which, when fed into a self-organizing neural network, was intended to provide it with accurate information on which to base predictions of future mutations in the molecule.
Dr. Osnirdottir and her team were killed when the unfinished TBA exploded, destroying most of the mobile laboratory structure. Teams investigating the structure's ruin afterwards found possible indications of foul play - the plasma generators used to contain the antimatter appeared to have been cross-wired and burned out.
Eifyr & Co. built a new laboratory nearby in memorial to Dr. Osnirdottir, which was named "The Forlorn Hope."
Shamanic Cures
Vherokior Tribe, in partnership with Native Fresh Food and the Brutor Tribe, have led the search to find a cure that might already exist somewhere in nature. Multiple teams of explorers began the mammoth task of cataloguing and analyzing plants, fungi, viruses and bacteria in search of a natural interferon, virophage or other form of Vitoxin resistance that could be transplanted safely and successfully into a human being.
With the project disguised as an ecological study aimed at restoring the ecosystems of planets that were industrially ravaged during the Amarr occupation, ecologists, universities and even private individuals with no scientific training were able to contribute to the project by taking samples from their local environment to travelling analyzers provided by Vherokior Tribe.
Much of the data gathered was sent to a central repository at the Tribal Breathing Library on Skarkon II. During the Angel Cartel occupation of the planet in YC 110, the library was pillaged and much of the data held there was sold on the black market or destroyed. The Vherokior Tribe's custom of sharing and diffusing information, however, meant that all the data remained in storage across the Tribe and was recollected at a convocation of the tribe later that year.
One potentially fruitful discovery yielded from this effort is the Uppenhaller Tree Sticker, a forest-dwelling amphibian commonly kept as a child's pet in the northern regions of Ennur II. The Tree Sticker is toxic to most predators in the area, but appears naturally harmless to humans in any but the strongest doses, raising the possibility of using the toxin as a form of chemotherapy to poison infected cells and leave the healthy ones alone.
A secondary aspect of the project sent shamans and storytellers out across the Republic, collecting tales from wide-spread clans and colonies, especially in areas that had been occupied by the Amarr. Students from the University of Caille became involved in the aspect of the project, seeking lore and legends from Minmatar groups that had emigrated into Federation space. It was hoped that somewhere, a tale would be found of a cure, or a myth or metaphor might lead to a substance or area linked to an antidote.
Analysis of all this data continues, both for its potential to locate a cure for Vitoxin infection and to aid planets struck by ecological disaster or returned tribes seeking to know more about their history and legends. Among many dead ends examined so far, or which led to aspects already under research, one lead is still under investigation and is considered hopeful by the shamans involved.
An oft-repeated legend from Ani constellation tells of General Hraldar, one of the three leaders of the local rebellion against the Nefantar Collaboration. The story claims that Hraldar "climbed to the peak of the highest mountain and spent three days in prayer and communion with a mighty spirit, which taught him to make the Rite of the Cleansing Breath. And Hraldar returned to the valleys below and granted the Breath to his sister and freed her from her chains." Shamans hypothesise that this might refer to some herbal aerosol used to cure Vitoxin, but the location of the "highest mountain" has not yet been determined - some shamans believe that it may refer to a "holiest mountain" rather than a literal degree of altitude. The search focuses on planets and moons in the Hjoramold system, where the Three Generals built their great fortress and where Hraldar and his family were known to originate.
Dialysis
In 107, Angar Mulheias, an unlicensed shaman exiled from the Vherokior tribe began selling a treatment to the homeless ex-slave population in Brutor Tribe Treasury in Rens. He used a combination of blood dialysis and transfusions to purge Vitoxin from the blood of those near-death from withdrawal, producing many public and miraculous recoveries that brought him a large, underground following.
What Mulheias never revealed was that his patients, believing themselves cured, were dying 24 hours later from a resurgence of the infection. He was captured by Republic Justice Department and remains imprisoned to this day.
It is now known that the infection reoccurred due to the presence of latent Vitoxin in bone-marrow cells. Experiments have begun into the viability of combining dialysis with bone marrow transplants, but initial indications are that a patient's entire bone marrow would have to be replaced, rather than a small section transplanted and allowed to grow, in order to prevent cross-infection. This makes the process both very high risk and close to cloning in cost and therefore not viable for use on the necessary scale.
Vesicular Modification
A team of nanite engineers from Sebiestor Tribe first posited the idea of laying "traps" for Vitoxin the blood vessels of the human host in YC 107.
Early experiments involved modifying the walls of the primate test subject's blood vessels with a fringe of cilia - fronds that beat rapidly, accelerating the flow of the blood towards the kidneys where a system of fine, implanted nanofilters would extract the Vitoxin for excretion. While this process showed a measure of success in slowing Vitoxin infection of the rest of the body, the kidneys became heavily infected and the process was not able to prevent the infection becoming prevalent throughout the body over time. Patients also complained of dizziness, shortness of breath and increased heart rate, which could be rectified by administering additional oxygen.
A second set of experiments were conducted by the same team in partnership with Eifyr & Co. Cells were engineered in the laboratory with a bi-lipid layer that was easy to penetrate inwards but resistant to outgoing penetration and exocytosis. These "Q-cells" are then injected into the host in large quantities. Their design causes them to adhere easily to the outer layer of normal human cells, but they do not cling to each other, so a single layer would line the walls of each blood vessel without excessively narrowing its diameter and causing blockages.
By trapping the Vitoxin virus and its toxic by-products within the Q-cells, this process was found to slow the rate of toxin build-up in the patient by 50 - 60%. Q-cells were cleared for general medical usage for Vitoxin-infected patients in withdrawal from Vitoc in YC 109, extending the time medical personnel have to obtain the correct form of Vitoc needed to sustain the patient.
Genetic Engineering
The possibility of genetically engineering the Republican Minmatar population to resist Vitoxin is a subject still under fierce debate in Parliament and in scientific institutions across the Republic.
Modification of the Minmatar genome could not be done in such a way as to make it impossible for cells to produce the toxins commanded by the Vitoxin viral DNA, as those instructions are carried on the viral genome that replaces the hosts'. It could, however, be engineered to produce its own Q-cells or to include a particular gene marker discovered in the fedo genome that stops bacillus omnivorous attacking the host.
After generations of modification of Matari genomes under the Amarr occupation, many blood lines are already suffering genetic abnormalities. From the genes for baldness on the Sebiestor Y-chromosome to thick skulls or brittle bone disease in some Brutor lines, the prevalence of such modification is a source of great strain to the Republic's medical facilities and of even greater grief to her people. Many are horrified and repelled by the prospect of tampering with our genes again and an emergency Pan-tribal Council of Shamans denounced the proposal as abhorrent to the ancestors and a deviation of genetic destiny.
Current Republic law permits human genetic modification only to correct development of a foetus which will be born with a known debilitating genetic condition. Research into genetic engineering to resist Vitoxin has therefore been confined to the purely theoretical domain, and few laboratories have been eager to contribute to the field.
Mutational Algorithm Prediction
The Amarr clearly have some method of predicting how Vitoxin will mutate and when that enables them to develop, produce and distribute the required form of Vitoc to act as its antidote. Knowing how Vitoxin will mutate next will enable suffers to manage their own treatment to a greater extent and lessen the risk of doctors administering the wrong Vitoc strain to cure it. It could also enable doctors to prepare a cure for multiple mutations of the virus, killing it in sequential adaptations until it dies off entirely in the host.
Aside from Insorum, the greatest hope for curing Vitoxin is to decode the system that determines the new chemical structure of Vitoxin that will result from its periodic mutation and find the mechanism that triggers its changes in biochemical structure. Computer modelling conducted by multiple research groups across the Republic and the Gallente Federation has suggested that treating the DNA of the virus itself as some form of quaternary code sequence (GTAC - the symbols for the bases in DNA, being the symbols of the code) and applying a transformation algorithm using a code key currently known only to the toxin’s producers, would reveal the sequence of pre-determined mutations.
The Vitoxin DNA molecule is the toughest cryptological puzzle the Republic has ever faced. The long, furled DNA strand houses sequences that must be retained from one strain to the next for the virus to retain its essential properties and amongst them, there is an element to the molecule's design that makes only one mutation possible as the next step in the virus' evolution and somehow makes it happen at a pre-determined time. There are millions of possible permutations written into the viral genetic code and dozens of groups are working to uncover which base sequences are for toxin production, which are "counters" that somehow control when the DNA mutates and which determine what that mutation will be.
While conventional "experiment and test" methodologies and simple sampling and study of the viral genome over time have a vital part in this research, artificial intelligence is being widely employed to process the data and look for patterns and connections that the human mind is unlikely to recognize. CONCORD strongly regulate the development of any artificial intelligence - the learning capacity of any AI must, by law, be finite and constrained to a limited domain of application.
Most laboratories involved in this aspect of the project have therefore chosen to use relatively simple neural networks known as "Self-Organizing Maps." Such networks are fed a training set of data consisting of the gene sequence of a strain of Vitoxin DNA as its input and the sequence of the form it mutates into, which acts as a template "answer" for the network. The network makes the required adjustments to its computational process to get the correct answer for the training input, then repeats the process until it can get the correct answer for a full set of such inputs. Once this is done, an unknown input can be presented, and the neural network should be able to determine the next genetic structure the input pattern will mutate into.
Training sets must be large, however, and given the relative lack of data on Vitoxin mutation prior to recent efforts, and the periodic nature of its evolution, this effort is still ongoing.
Footnotes
- "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.
