Key Points
Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life..
Viruses were far smaller than cells, and inside their protein shells they carried little more than genes..
When Lpez and her colleagues turned their attention to RSV, which sickens over 2 million people in the United States every year and causes thousands of deaths, they found that incomplete viruses produced in natural infections also triggered a strong immune response from infected cells...
Instead of focusing on the idea that the incomplete viruses were cheating, Lpez began to think about them and the functional viruses as working together toward the shared goal of long-term survival..
They infected mice with a lethal strain of influenza and then squirted the super-cheater into the animals noses. The super-cheater virus was so good at exploiting functional viruses and slowing their replication that the mice managed to recover from the flu within a couple weeks..
