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Is it possible to create racially or ethnically targeted bioweapons?

lpetrich

lpetrich

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I confess to great skepticism, because of what I know about human genetics. Something like 85% of our genetic variation is shared by all major population groups, and only 15% is different by continent. Understanding Human Genetic Variation - NIH Curriculum Supplement Series - NCBI Bookshelf

But that 15% codes for easily visible differences, like skin color, hair color, hair texture, eye color, facial features, ....

Would it be possible to have some organism look for some variant in that 15%?

First, cellular organisms. For the most part, they are stuck with what is in the intercellular fluid and on the surfaces of cells. But an organism may poison some nearby cells and make them burst. That will give the organism access to the cell's contents. Likewise, a multicellular organism may eat red blood cells and the like, releasing their contents.

A virus, however, is a replication-system parasite, multiplying inside a cell. That may give it access to the cell's genome.

Could you make a genetically targeted weapon? | Science | The Guardian - Thu 28 Oct 2004 07.21 EDT

British Medical Association: Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II
The BMA, which dismissed the idea of genetic weapons in a 1999 report (Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity I), has lifted its new concerns from the work of a German group called the Sunshine Project. It looked at how mutations in our genome called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) differ between specific ethnic groups and concluded: "Genome data in public databases revealed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of target sequences for ethnic specific weapons do exist. It appears that ethnic specific biological weapons may indeed become possible in the near future."

Rather than specifically triggering the toxic effects of organisms such as anthrax, the Sunshine project warned that weapons based on a new medical technique called RNA interference could shut down vital genes. If the sequence of the target gene varies between two different populations the technique could be used to interrupt key body functions in one population and not the other. "If as little as 10% or 20% of a target population would be affected, this would wreak havoc among enemy soldiers on a battlefield or in an enemy society as a whole," the group said.

Others say the concerns are exaggerated. "Trying to find a weapon that affects quite a few of one ethnic group and none of another ethnic group is just not going to happen," says David Goldstein, who studies population genetics at University College London. "Because all groups are quite similar you will never get something that is highly selective. The best you would probably do is something that kills 20% of one group and 28% of another."

The groups in question are also far broader than those associated with ethnic conflict. Geneticists can only distinguish between people with ancestry traced to regions such as Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia.
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Bioweapons Targeting Specific Ethnicities: A Threat And Nanotechnology’s Promise For Defence – OpEd – Eurasia Review - March 27, 2023
One example of such a weapon is the so-called “ethnic bomb” that was reportedly developed by the former South African government during the apartheid era. This weapon was designed to target specific ethnic groups by exploiting genetic differences in the way the body metabolizes certain chemicals. The weapon was never deployed, but its existence highlights the potential for bioweapons to be used in this way.

Another example of a bioweapon that could target specific ethnic groups is the use of CRISPR gene editing technology. This technology allows for precise editing of genes and could be used to target specific genes that are unique to certain ethnic groups. This would allow for the creation of a bioweapon that is more lethal to one group than another.
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Looks like it would take a lot of biochemistry research to find some suitable target.
However, the practicality of such weapons is questionable.

Firstly, the genetic differences between different ethnic groups are relatively small, and it would be challenging to create a weapon that is specific enough to target only one group without causing unintended harm to other groups. Secondly, the use of bioweapons in warfare is illegal under international law, and their use would result in severe consequences for the nation or group that deploys them.
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Then mentioning which infectious agent to use, what mode of transmission, and how resistant to treatment.

Then mentioning nanoparticles, like Vaccine nanoparticles displaying recombinant Ebola virus glycoprotein for induction of potent antibody and polyfunctional T cell responses - ScienceDirect That's creating some imitation Ebola proteins and adding some other stuff to make the nanoparticles. So these nanoparticles are packaging.

Are racially specific bioweapons feasible? - Quora
None of the responders thought such weapons very feasible.

 Ethnic bioweapon - also mentioning skepticism about the feasibility of such a weapon.
 
A politically sensitive question that brings in race and bias.

I don't know much about genetics, but I have heard some medications have dosages based on race.

So there are differences. If anyone is working on such a weapon I'd think it would be China. Of course we would look at as well. Part of the arms race.

If it can done it will be dine.
 
lpetrich said:
A virus, however, is a replication-system parasite, multiplying inside a cell. That may give it access to the cell's genome.
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But probably won't. The vast majority of viruses use the cellular machinery in the cytoplasm to replicate more virus; They don't care what the nuclear DNA codes for, and have no mechanism to read it.

Those viruses that interact with host DNA typically do so by inserting their own genetic material; Again, they do not (and lack the mechanism to even attempt to) read the DNA that's already present.

Reading the target's genome to find ethnic or racial markers is going to be a massively difficult and entirely novel approach, and I sincerely doubt that it could ever be made into a practical weapon.

It will be far easier to have a pathogen respond to a protein expressed only by your target population, and this will likely be available in tissue fluid, so requires no initial "diagnostic" attack on the hosts cells at all.

The problem then becomes (or remains, as I doubt this work has not already been extensively researched in secret by many nations) identifying a usable trigger protein that is NOT present in populations you don't want to target. I suspect this is not possible - humans are too well mixed, with few if any unique proteins in different populations. At the proteome level, there's only one (human) race, and variations are a matter of degree, and not of type.

I base my confidence in large part on the fact that nobody has yet suceeded in developing such a weapon. You can be sure they have been trying.
 
bilby said:
lpetrich said:
Likewise, a multicellular organism may eat red blood cells and the like, releasing their contents.
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Red blood cells don't contain genetic material. They have no nucleii.
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True, but they contain proteins.

Cellular organisms more generally will mainly have access to proteins, like intercellular ones and cell-surface ones.
 
bilby said:
lpetrich said:
A virus, however, is a replication-system parasite, multiplying inside a cell. That may give it access to the cell's genome.
Click to expand...
But probably won't. The vast majority of viruses use the cellular machinery in the cytoplasm to replicate more virus; They don't care what the nuclear DNA codes for, and have no mechanism to read it.
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Viruses in the Nucleus - PMC - "Many DNA and some RNA viruses need to access the nuclear machinery and therefore transverse the nuclear envelope barrier through the nuclear pore complex."

Viral RNA Replication in Association with Cellular Membranes - PMC - "All plus-strand RNA viruses replicate in association with cytoplasmic membranes of infected cells."
Reading the target's genome to find ethnic or racial markers is going to be a massively difficult and entirely novel approach, and I sincerely doubt that it could ever be made into a practical weapon.
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The most promising approach would be to look for the genetics of various regional phenotypes. Like:
  • Melanin production in skin, hair follicles, and eye pupils.
  • Keratin in hair: what curliness?
  • Lactose tolerance: does one stop making lactase (lactose-digesting enzyme) after infancy?
  • Head width and facial features -- I haven't seen anything on their genetics.
  • Sickle-cell anemia and thalassemia: anti-malaria adaptations
  • Tay-Sachs disease: anti-tuberculosis adaptation
One has to look for not only genes, but also gene-regulatory elements and genes upstream of what one is targeting.

 Sodium/potassium/calcium exchanger 5
Sodium/potassium/calcium exchanger 5 (NCKX5), also known as solute carrier family 24 member 5 (SLC24A5), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC24A5 gene that has a major influence on natural skin colour variation.[5] The NCKX5 protein is a member of the potassium-dependent sodium/calcium exchanger family. Sequence variation in the SLC24A5 gene, particularly a non-synonymous SNP changing the amino acid at position 111 in NCKX5 from alanine to threonine, has been associated with differences in skin pigmentation.[6]
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A point mutation - that's going to be awfully hard for a virus to detect.

An alternative would be some microbe that enters the outermost skin cells and then switches on when it detects a lot of melanin being made. Not just viruses, but also cellular organisms that are intracellular parasites, living inside their host cells.  Intracellular bacteria and  Microsporidia

That would also require a lot of genetic engineering.
 
bilby said:
It will be far easier to have a pathogen respond to a protein expressed only by your target population, and this will likely be available in tissue fluid, so requires no initial "diagnostic" attack on the hosts cells at all.

The problem then becomes (or remains, as I doubt this work has not already been extensively researched in secret by many nations) identifying a usable trigger protein that is NOT present in populations you don't want to target. I suspect this is not possible - humans are too well mixed, with few if any unique proteins in different populations. At the proteome level, there's only one (human) race, and variations are a matter of degree, and not of type.

I base my confidence in large part on the fact that nobody has yet suceeded in developing such a weapon. You can be sure they have been trying.
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One country's ethnic-targeted bioweapon program has already been reserved:  Project Coast
South Africa's truth commission reveals bioweapons plot | Nature
Basson liaised with researchers through a front company, Roodeplaat Research Laboratories, headed by former University of Pretoria veterinarian Daan Goosen, who became involved in the programme after being asked to supply snake venom intended to kill ANC members. Goosen was briefed to develop research projects including the selective poisoning of people on the basis of their skin pigmentation, producing a vaccine to reduce black fertility, and cultivating cholera and anthrax organisms.

It is unclear which of the programme's products were effective and which remained in the realms of morbid fantasy. Poison manufactured at Roodeplaat was used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the Minister of Justice, Dullah Omar. But anthrax spores were planted in the food of three Russian advisers to the ANC, one of whom subsequently died.
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What Happened In South Africa? | Plague War | FRONTLINE | PBS
Developed lethal chemical and biological weapons that targeted ANC political leaders and their supporters as well as populations living in the black townships. These weapons included an infertility toxin to secretly sterilize the black population; skin-absorbing poisons that could be applied to the clothing of targets; and poison concealed in products such as chocolates and cigarettes. (Read the interviews with former President F.W. de Klerk, and Dr. Daan Goosen, who worked with Basson in the CBW program.)

Released cholera strains into water sources of certain South African villages and provided anthrax and cholera to the government troops of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the late 1970s to use against the rebel soldiers in the guerrilla war. In 1979 the world's largest outbreak of anthrax took place in Rhodesia where 82 people were killed and thousands became ill. Zimbabwe's current Minister of Health, Dr. Timothy Stamps, has ordered an investigation into whether South Africa was involved in the incident.
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They were likely successful with broad-spectrum biological weapons, but then again, broad-spectrum ones have been used off and on for centuries:  History of biological warfare
 
Trying to target an ethnicity or especially a race is very fuzzy. This creates a lot of problems for the nefarious goals.

Also, if you want to make a living bio-weapon, you'll need to be careful of when it begins to mutate because then you may also become a target.
 
lpetrich said:
bilby said:
lpetrich said:
Likewise, a multicellular organism may eat red blood cells and the like, releasing their contents.
Click to expand...
Red blood cells don't contain genetic material. They have no nucleii.
Click to expand...
True, but they contain proteins.

Cellular organisms more generally will mainly have access to proteins, like intercellular ones and cell-surface ones.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Make your bioweapon incomplete, it can only function in the presence of a protein only possessed by the race you're trying to target. No guarantee that there is such a protein and you have the incomplete bioweapon in proximity to coding for what's needed to complete it. The odds it manages to incorporate said gene are very low--but the dice are going to be thrown an awful lot of times and if it happens now you have a bioweapon that targets everyone.

The propensity to mutate makes bioweapons a very bad idea unless you're targeting something radically different than you.
 
bilby said:
Red blood cells don't contain genetic material. They have no nucleii.
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Do the hypothetical bioweapons test DNA or RNA? IIUC red blood cells do have RNA.

But I think there are simpler approaches to ethnic or cultural targeting, especially if high levels of collateral damage are acceptable. As a simple example, doesn't malaria affect a higher portion of non-Africans than Africans?

What about culture-based targeting? Destroying rice crops worldwide would devastate countries like Thailand, while eaters of bread or potatoes might be OK.

Even "politics" can be targeted! Covid-19 killed many thousands more Redshirts in the USA compared with Blueshirts, due to their differing views on vaccination.
 
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