Major breakthrough in treating Viral infections?
polycounter lvl 17
Since there are so many doom and gloom people are bad threads up let's talk about this:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html
Obviously we're still some years away from an practical antiviral equivalent to penicillin at every pharmacy, but this is extremely good news in a world where a new strain of the flu causes a global panic.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html
in a paper published July 27 in the journal PLoS One, the researchers tested their drug against 15 viruses, and found it was effective against all of them including rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several other types of hemorrhagic fever.
The drug works by targeting a type of RNA produced only in cells that have been infected by viruses. In theory, it should work against all viruses, says Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratorys Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group who invented the new technology.
Because the technology is so broad-spectrum, it could potentially also be used to combat outbreaks of new viruses, such as the 2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, Rider says.
Obviously we're still some years away from an practical antiviral equivalent to penicillin at every pharmacy, but this is extremely good news in a world where a new strain of the flu causes a global panic.
Replies
I hate being sick. I hope this turns into something real.
Nice article !
A guy with leukemia who also happened to have HIV received a bone marrow transplant from a guy who has a genetic deformity where the T-receptor is flimsy and doesn't allow the virus to mechanically attach to the cell. Therefore, preventing the virus to infiltrate the cell and replicate, effectively making you immune to the virus.
The problem with this 'cure' is that the deformity lowers the immune system in general, so while you will be immune to HIV, you will be more susceptible to other diseases. Plus there's always the problem that the genetic marker for the cure is relatively rare (i think it can be traced back to certain regions of Scandinavia), and the ethics behind farming that particular group of people for their Stem Cells is a pretty large barrier lol. But it's definitely a start.
I'll look for good article on the subject
EDIT:
OK, so here's a news article talking very vaguely about the procedure.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/05/16/apparent-immunity-gene-cures-bay-area-man-of-aids/
I'll keep looking for something more in-depth or maybe someone else can find something on it, since I was only going off of memory up there.
EDIT EDIT:
Ok, this one gets into a little more specifics:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/berlin-patient-is-still-free-of-hiv-three-years-after-deadly-stem-cell-transplant/story-fn5fsgyc-1225972121487
Curing an individual is very very different from curing a disease, especially when the disease is so broad as 'cancer'. Putting a cure for aids on the market would make you filthy rich, sitting on one and not telling anybody about it would pave the way for cheap generics to take all of your profits.
So basically, if nobody's getting wealthy off curing aids, aids hasnt been cured yet. The notion that someone would keep a cure on the down low, especially in america, is ludicrous, especially when you consider how much money they're losing trying to find treatments and how little time they have to get it to market and gain it back, after it's discovered, before generics are allowed to be produced.
Note MIT put this article out WAY before it's an actual effective treatment, while it's still in the realm of a vague, not quite appropriate approach that someone else could at this point imitate and innovate off of.
Lroy: A cure for viral marketing would be nobel prize material for sure.
Interesting video I just found, kinda relevant.
www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html
Debunked by the fundamental elements of science and logic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophic_burden_of_proof
but, i they`ve probably had cures for years and years for everything. But no money is made off cures. only treatments. sooo
http://www.toonaripost.com/2011/05/cancer-cure-being-ignored/
Only not.
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/another-cure-for-cancer/
According to the posts here it's already obvious they don't have jobs, because curing cancer isn't worth any money.
Have you considered that your friends might be lying to you?