Myxamatosis

In their interminable effort to eradicate the rabbit infestation, the Australians at one point stooped to biowarfare. The rabbits had caused incalculable damage to the ecosystem, and at a population that may number in the billions, the Aussies were running out of bullets, and were markedly tired of rabbit stew.

Their attempt at a solution was to translocate a recent species jumping virus, the myxovirus of a Brazilian rabbit-like creature, to their own outback. Myxovirus had symbiotically adapted to its rainforest host, causing no symptoms, and no mortality. But in european rabbits, the adorable bunnies we know and love, the disease is one of the most infectious, invasive, and destructive diseases we have ever seen. In virology and infectious disease terms, the virus is hotter than hot.

At first glance, the effort was incredibly successful. A massive area of Australia was virtually depopulated of bunnies. But soon enough, nature ran its course, and the .1% of immune rabbits soon exploded again. But the effort had born some fruit. The research into myxovirus, a poxvirus variant, had shown quite a bit about the virus, which had intrigued researchers worldwide with its recent species jump.

We don't understand much of why viruses infect the species they infect. They pick and chose in live animals, infecting some and not others. When they jump species, it is almost always an extremely potent infection. But while studying the virus, a remarkable lab happenstance led to a researcher noting that myxovirus's selectivity was based less on animal type, and more on the presence or absence of a single immunoresponse pathway. A pathway coincidentally absent in virtually all human cancer.

One day, this accidental discovery could be on par with the discovery of penicillin. These viruses preferentially attack solely cancer cells. Mouse studies have shown 90% efficacy in eliminating gangliomas, some of the most resilient and cantankerous brain cancers we generate. This virus, this rabbit plague, kills cancer cells, and only cancer cells.

Myxamatosis. fantastic.