Another sensational news. New antiviral drug capable of destroying every possible virus in a living organism. Even AIDS, Ebola, Rabies, and other...

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/08/new-drug-could-1.php

Quote from: Dreamframer on August 12, 2011, 01:09
Another sensational news. New antiviral drug capable of destroying every possible virus in a living organism. Even AIDS, Ebola, Rabies, and other...

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/08/new-drug-could-1.php

Wow, thanks for the link!

According to the study, researchers are currently testing DRACO against more viruses in mice, and hope move on to testing in larger animals and humans in the future.

Wow.  About time.  All the money we pour into this stuff and it seems like nothing ever happens.

This was yesterdays's news if you didn't see it re a cancer/leukemia breakthrough.  The trial was only done on 3 people because they couldn't get funding, but a couple parents donated for the reasearch from a fund they had started when their own child died from cancer.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/gene-therapy-kills-leukemia-127508923.html

is it real news? Its pretty cool if it is. I am just a tiny bit skeptical about information coming from a subdivision of a science fiction channel.

Quote from: sjlocke on August 12, 2011, 02:48
Wow.  About time.  All the money we pour into this stuff and it seems like nothing ever happens.

But just imagine how much money people will have to pay for it too.

Quote from: VB inc on August 12, 2011, 03:57
is it real news? Its pretty cool if it is. I am just a tiny bit skeptical about information coming from a subdivision of a science fiction channel.

The original source seems to be the MIT:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html

So I guess it is safe to assume that this is "real". Would be really great and a relieve for many people....

oh great!! humans outsmarting mother nature to live longer and drain more shrinking global resources. those poor drowning polar bears.
kidding!!! sort of 

Quote from: VB inc on August 12, 2011, 05:36
oh great!! humans outsmarting mother nature to live longer and drain more shrinking global resources. those poor drowning polar bears.
kidding!!! sort of 

We'll just have to find something new to kill us. There's always something replacing the diseases we've cured.

Unless it gets tested in humans, I wouldn´t get too excited. This looks like very early stages and they are probably seeding stories to the press while trying to get more funding.

Interesting concept, though.

My questions is what if there are viruses within us that do something useful?  Don't know what that would be, but we have helpful bacteria, so...

Honestly this sounds like the start of a post-apocalyptic movie where scientists only had the best intentions and a few hearty souls end-up barricaded in a shopping mall.   

this might be the reason why women couldnt have children in that sci fi movie "Children of Men"

Quote from: VB inc on August 12, 2011, 23:20
this might be the reason why women couldnt have children in that sci fi movie "Children of Men"

"The Omega Man" or "I am Legend" Same movie, different age.

Quote from: VB inc on August 12, 2011, 05:36
oh great!! humans outsmarting mother nature to live longer and drain more shrinking global resources. those poor drowning polar bears.
kidding!!! sort of 

I guess you would like such a drug if you had a child with cancer! I see your point however, we are weakening our genetic pool because people don't die from so many causes that would be devastating in the past, and these would be in theory people with the weakest genes. We don't live under the laws of natural selection anymore, at least many of us don't (street dwellers do, as only the strongest ones survive sleeping in the streets malnourished), but this can also be seen as part of our evolution.

Living longer does put a pressure on our planet, so does population growth and an energy-hungry society. I would prefer we attack the latter two problems.  

Quote from: LSD72 on August 12, 2011, 23:31

Quote from: VB inc on August 12, 2011, 23:20
this might be the reason why women couldnt have children in that sci fi movie "Children of Men"

"The Omega Man" or "I am Legend" Same movie, different age.

And don't forget "Soylent green". Eating processed human meat may not be so bizarre at some point.

So we will be living forever, travelling throughout the universe and completely free of any diseases.
Either that or someone needs to tune into some more reputable news sources.

I think the pharmaceutical industry will find this "solution" unsustainable.

Viruses have their role in evolution. They are basically fragments of DNA (or RNA) surrounded by protein shell, and they act like they are not alive when they are not in the cell. But when they touch the living cell, their protein shell makes sort of a molecular link to the cell membrane, and it brakes apart allowing the DNA or RNA of a virus to enter the cell.
Than, this foreign DNA or RNA acts like any other DNA or RNA in the cell, multiplying itself using cell mechanisms. Viral DNA and RNA also carries information about the protein shell that has to be made in order to protect future viral DNA or RNA when the cell dies and releases thousands or millions of new viruses.
Some of the viruses enter the cell nucleus, and implement them selves in the DNA of a host, which means they become a part of our DNA. Then, they are able to stay there for months or years, until something wakes them up, and they start to multiply. This is how HIV virus works. It stays quiet in the heart of the cells, waiting for something to wake him up, and then it starts it's multiplication causing AIDS symptoms.
Viruses are basically small groups of genes, and they act like that. That's why, sometimes, viruses that implement themselves into bacterial DNA are able to make those bacteria different than the rest, uninfected ones. Some strains of bacteria were born this way, and they looked different, and acted different than the original bacteria that weren't infected. Theoretically, the same can happen to higher organisms, like we are. Many of us carry herpes virus, and maybe, once it will cause some mutation causing some new attribute in an infected person.
But in most cases viruses are harmful, and organism tends to destroy them.
I am not sure, but I think this new medicine is able to stick to the cell membrane of infected cells, causing cell destruction. That's because infected cells always have certain proteins on their membranes that mar them as infected cells. The problem, until now, was the fact that these markers on the membrane look different related to different viruses that are in the cell. I am not sure how they managed to make a substance able to recognize these markers in such a universal way....
I also see one thing as a problem. Imagine if you have a flu, and your lungs are seriously infected, and you take a medicine like this. It would destroy all infected cells in your lungs, and you will probably suffocate. Will the proper dosage solve a problem like this? I hope they know better than we do

Quote from: Dreamframer on August 13, 2011, 17:12
Viruses have their role in evolution. They are basically fragments of DNA (or RNA) surrounded by protein shell, and they act like they are not alive when they are not in the cell. But when they touch the living cell, their protein shell makes sort of a molecular link to the cell membrane, and it brakes apart allowing the DNA or RNA of a virus to enter the cell.
Than, this foreign DNA or RNA acts like any other DNA or RNA in the cell, multiplying itself using cell mechanisms. Viral DNA and RNA also carries information about the protein shell that has to be made in order to protect future viral DNA or RNA when the cell dies and releases thousands or millions of new viruses.
Some of the viruses enter the cell nucleus, and implement them selves in the DNA of a host, which means they become a part of our DNA. Then, they are able to stay there for months or years, until something wakes them up, and they start to multiply. This is how HIV virus works. It stays quiet in the heart of the cells, waiting for something to wake him up, and then it starts it's multiplication causing AIDS symptoms.
Viruses are basically small groups of genes, and they act like that. That's why, sometimes, viruses that implement themselves into bacterial DNA are able to make those bacteria different than the rest, uninfected ones. Some strains of bacteria were born this way, and they looked different, and acted different than the original bacteria that weren't infected. Theoretically, the same can happen to higher organisms, like we are. Many of us carry herpes virus, and maybe, once it will cause some mutation causing some new attribute in an infected person.
But in most cases viruses are harmful, and organism tends to destroy them.
I am not sure, but I think this new medicine is able to stick to the cell membrane of infected cells, causing cell destruction. That's because infected cells always have certain proteins on their membranes that mar them as infected cells. The problem, until now, was the fact that these markers on the membrane look different related to different viruses that are in the cell. I am not sure how they managed to make a substance able to recognize these markers in such a universal way....
I also see one thing as a problem. Imagine if you have a flu, and your lungs are seriously infected, and you take a medicine like this. It would destroy all infected cells in your lungs, and you will probably suffocate. Will the proper dosage solve a problem like this? I hope they know better than we do

Thanks for the great explanation Dreamframer!

Quote from: click_click on August 13, 2011, 15:20
I think the pharmaceutical industry will find this "solution" unsustainable.

Nah, it will be a solution that we will have to take forever. 

I'm having visions of "I am Legend"....doctor invents a mutant virus to kill cancerous cells, that then turns people into zombies that eat any survivors....

I'm curious too how the drug kills viruses but not good stuff, like good bacteria which we need to survive.

Quote from: lola on August 15, 2011, 04:22
I'm having visions of "I am Legend"....doctor invents a mutant virus to kill cancerous cells, that then turns people into zombies that eat any survivors....

I'm curious too how the drug kills viruses but not good stuff, like good bacteria which we need to survive.

A virus is not the same as a bacteria. These are two completely different organisms. As far as I know, there are no "good" viruses. Nothing to worry on this side.

Quote from: madelaide on August 12, 2011, 23:32


I guess you would like such a drug if you had a child with cancer! I see your point however, we are weakening our genetic pool because people don't die from so many causes that would be devastating in the past, and these would be in theory people with the weakest genes. We don't live under the laws of natural selection anymore, at least many of us don't (street dwellers do, as only the strongest ones survive sleeping in the streets malnourished), but this can also be seen as part of our evolution.

We do all of us still live under the laws of natural selection, although our selection pressures differ somewhat from the past. Nature is probably busily working away right now on selecting out people who don't look both ways when crossing a street, or who gorge excessively on sugar and fat, or who are so obsessed with Linux that there's no chance of getting it on, ever.  And of course all those people who die or lose fertility due to allopathic medicine and industrial chemicals.

The rise of infertility in the industrialised nations is a huge indicator that the pressures are there. And it hits those who are well-educated and financially comfortable as much as anyone.

Natural selection never stops but you have to look at it from a longer timescale. 

On this 'weakening the gene pool' thing - apes having at least 16 medicinal herbs in their medical tool kit, and humans, for a long time now, have been dabbling with antibiotics, lenses for myopia, wound sterilisation, bone-setting....