New Wonder Drug Kills Almost Any Virus

[X10J]

Thats kind of cool. But I feel obligated to point out that it works by killing the human cells that the virus feeds on. Where have I seen that?

Ohhh, thats right. http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/The_Halo_Ring_Wallpaper_tj53u.jpg

 

[GameMaNiAC]

The world is going to end in seven days.

You have one chance.

That's what popped into my head, anyway.

That's exactly what I thought of too.

 

[shiajun]

Well, considering viral genetic code comes in all shapes and forms (single stranded DNA, double stranded DNA, sigle strande RNA, double stranded RNA, segmented double strande RNA) only a subset of them will be affected by DRACO. Granted, RNA virii tend to evolve faster and therefore outrun antiviral agents and vaccines much much faster than DNA virii.

FYI, whoever said, influenza (aka, flu) is not a retrovirus. it's a segmented RNA virus and while it creates copies of its genome in the nucleus, it never has a DNA phase. Considering it is highly contagious and airborne, and that a retrovirus has a much greater chance of generating cancer, then we'd be royally screwed.

It's a very cool idea. For those who asked DRACO would discriminate the presence of an dsRNA virus infection only by the fact that there's dsRNA in the host cell. dsRNA is not normally found at all in cells and A WHOLE LOT of organisms (plants, yeast, fungi, etc, etc) have cellular strategies that detect it and send signals that say "i'm infected, kill me", which in humans the immune system is quite content on doing. This is just aiding that system as a lot of the dsRNA virus have evolved to have proteins that cancel or inhibit that response. As far as I can see, DRACO is trying to use another death pathway to which the virus doesn't yet have a way to stop. Which doesn't mean it won't down the line. And that virus (since this a caspase, and that route is used to tell cells to die under a lot of circumstances) will be one deadly, tumor generating Bad Mother Fucker.

Didn't quite understand the point you were trying to make at the end by saying "And that virus (since this a caspase, and that route is used to tell cells to die under a lot of circumstances) will be one deadly, tumor generating Bad Mother Fucker." because the caspase sequence is something we are actually working on to STOP cancers. Tumor growth factor often aim in the caspase sequence to try and stop the mechanisms of cell death, growing ito what you called a "tumor generating Bad Mother Fucker". DRACO is trying to link the dsRNA detectino proteins with the caspases metabolic cascade to accelereate the processus of apoptosis in case of infection which is actually the OPPOSITE of being a "tumor generator". (Or maybe I just REALLY didn,t understand your point cause the rest of your post was actually pretty acurate! )

Yeah...I think you misunderstood me. I was saying that down the line (years, decades, some other period of time) if a virus evolves to counter the effects of DRACO it will somehow have managed to side step caspase-mediated cell death. Therefore, when infected, a cell that harbors this virus will have less ways of dying off to protect the host and therefore could generate tumors. Of course, I got a bit overboard with it, as it probably would only happen to rapidly proliferating cells that got infected, not all cell types.

 

[Sn0wLeppard]

DRACO... Definitely sounds like this is gonna end up like a horror film

On a serious note, discoveries like this are exactly why the science and research budgets should not be cut.

 

[Zersy]

This will not end well.

 

[Tiger Sora]

Hmm this reminds me of the Flood with the "food supply". Activate the Ark!!! I mean DRACO!!!

Eww I made a Halo ref. I need to go shower.

 

[E-Penguin]

Good to here. Now all we need is a cure for cancer and were golden.

Wouldn't this cure cancer, though?

No more cells for it to spread to, then just zap it.

Now, if only we can have it so this gets widespread and isn't supressed by other drug companies.

It wouldn't cure cancer, as cancer is caused by human cells who accidentally becomes immortal and starts pumping out clones, not viruses.

Right, but doesn't cancer create clones the same way viruses do, by infecting other cells?

No, it creates clones exactly the same way as a normal human cell does. The only difference is that neither the original cell or its clones die.

That's what science class told me, anyway.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Testing will absolutely make or break this. Functioning on such a basic level, it's very conceivable that it could lead to unforseen collateral damage. While there aren't really any known so far as I'm aware (disclaimer: I'm no biologist), this could provide evidence for "good viruses" to go with the discovery of "good bacteria". That would also be a landmark scientific discovery though, so either way, this is probably a great development.

They also don't mention how difficult it is to produce. Given that it was created at a school rather than in a pharmaceutical lab, there's a rather good chance that it will end up relatively cheap though, so that's something at least.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Good to here. Now all we need is a cure for cancer and were golden.

Wouldn't this cure cancer, though?

No more cells for it to spread to, then just zap it.

Now, if only we can have it so this gets widespread and isn't supressed by other drug companies.

It wouldn't cure cancer, as cancer is caused by human cells who accidentally becomes immortal and starts pumping out clones, not viruses.

Right, but doesn't cancer create clones the same way viruses do, by infecting other cells?

No, it creates clones exactly the same way as a normal human cell does. The only difference is that neither the original cell or its clones die.

That's what science class told me, anyway.

That's the gist of it. Though "cancer" is really just a catch-all term for any abnormal cell growth, so you also get cells that are just multiplying abnormally quickly (without immortal parents) or cells that are simply growing in the wrong place. Things can go wrong in a lot of ways and "cancer" describes pretty much all of them.

Either way, cancer isn't typically the result of an RNA virus, so you're right that the drug's utility against cancer would be limited if it even existed.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Don't do it! it can only end in the inevitable apocalypse that the media has on thrived for years.

Ok I'm going to buy a Shotgun just in case.

 

[brazuca]

DRACO has the potential to become the greatest achievment of modern medicine since the discovery of PCN.

 

[Simalacrum]

As awesome as it is, I don't think it'll be the cure of all things, especially colds. After all, medicine is an endless war; they keep evolving, so we have to keep innovating. Still, this is great news, and I hope to hear it being rolled out to the public in a few years time :3

 

[T.D.]

I wouldn't call this the "cure" for viruses, as it is affectively killing it by starvation. Still it will be interesting to see the outcome of DRACO.
I also think in terms of evolution of viruses, that if it really does work via the simple process of starvation, i'm not sure anything can evolve to "fix" that. Maybe viruses will evolve to require less fuel ergo live longer.

 

[Kakashi on crack]

Too bad HIV is classified as ssRNA, try harder science! =|

Besides, the way it works would cause it to kill your cells faster since HIV targets specific defense cells.

ahh the irony of how one of the most fickle and weakest viruses in the world can cause so much harm simply because it feeds on immune systems :3

 

[Kakashi on crack]

ohh by the way, everyone keeps saying it "starves" the virus

The problem is that viruses don't starve, in fact, they never go away. They go into hibernation but once you catch a virus you always have it, you just have special T-cells(I think its T-cells) that target that type of virus in case it pops up and more or less "eat" it.

What this treatment does is kill off the virus' source of reproduction so that the cells can catch it faster and find ways to prevent it, so any virus that can avoid being eated and treated by your body (such as HIV) would not be affected, but other STDs/diseases/viruses (such as herpes) could be treated to make their symptoms milder in a sense via this kind of treatment.

Since most "viruses" are actually bacterium or whatchamacallits (think it starts with an L) this would only affect a few hundred (possibly thousand) diseases.

 

[neoman10]

So it is, more or less, the Penicillin of viruses? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[renegade7]

There's going to be a catch somewhere, I know it...prohibitively expensive? Or maybe pharmaceutical companies will suppress it for a few years to boost sales of other stuff? Or will the test just fail?

 

[renegade7]

So it is, more or less, the Penicillin of viruses? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Not necessarily. No way could a virus develop resistance to it, based on how it works.

 

[Talyan]

Erm, won't this go rampant and kill everything?

 

[Vohn_exel]

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! It's named Draco AND is some kind of biological breakthrough? WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! Or...Melt or something! Ooh, maybe monsters we can fight! I mean come on guys, how many movies and video games have prepared us for this?!


Really though it's pretty cool. I can't wait to see what they can do with this in a few years. Imagine what it'd be like if they really could cure almost any virus, how the world might be different. Man...there'd be alot of us.