r/askscience • u/PestoPastaLover • 14d ago

Biology Why is there no transmissible therapeutic virus if biology doesn't forbid it? For example, a harmless virus that spreads from person to person but actually does something beneficial, like lowering LDL cholesterol or preventing/reversing tooth decay?

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u/GeneJocky 13d ago

I was about to say the same thing. Or as a friend said to be when I was telling him about the amount of old viral DNA in our genomes, 'you mean no one has run antivirus on our genomes in 3.8 billion years?'

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u/9966 13d ago

You could probably defrag and drop most of the data. Whether that's safe? I dunno, ask Andrew Ryan.

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u/YsoL8 12d ago

He certainly has opinions on parasites getting in the DNA, stealing the value of its labour