Viruses--a conundrum.
To understand the pathophysiology of a disease, it is important to know the origin, causes and effects. This also helps to control and to treat the disease. In virus infections, it is difficult and confusing when the origin is sought. In this article it is hypothesized that the viruses, which are nucleoproteins, arise as fragments or broken segments of DNA or RNA. Various factors, such as radiation, toxic chemicals, pollution, are listed as possible causes of such fragmentations. It is logical that these DNA or RNA fragments must come from the genomes or the genes essential for the proliferation or cell division. The symbiotic and parasitic interrelationships of bacteria, plants and animals make the problem more complex and confusing, because all of them thrive and grow in each other cells, thus producing more nucleoproteins of each. Virions contain a small quantum of energy as the initial source of bioenergy to ignite and initiate the complex chemical reactions needed to use the potential energy reservoirs from the host. In this respect viruses can be considered as borderline between the living and the non-living. If one has to develop an effective drug or method for treating virus infections or cancers, the drug must have an antimitotic activity without affecting other normal functions. Such seems to be the case of globin derivatives of sickle cell and thalassemia red blood cells.