New Wonder Drug Kills Almost Any Virus

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Awesome...yet scary.

Somehow I get the feeling that some sick guy will be tinker with and abuse this breakthrough to create an "anti-virus" that outright kills people

...Or cold medicine companies will go "DO NOT WANT! IZ KILLING OUR BIZNISS!" and make sure it never happens.

Please, humanity. Don't screw this up.

 

[ModReap]

The world is going to end in seven days.

You have one chance.

That's what popped into my head, anyway.

Holy .... I just remembered where that was from

please let it not be that, please let it not be that, please let it not be that... T.T

 

[theultimateend]

I say this without a trace of irony or pop-culture: I see this being capable of going very, very wrong

Except that all evidence (that I'm aware of) to support these kind of things going terribly wrong are ironic or pop-culture driven.

Call me cynical, but I can see two extreme problems with this.

1. Why would drug compaines ever let this happen? There's no money in curing diseases, they found that out with polio. The money is in treatment.

2. Even if it is released, how long until super-resistant viruses start springing up?

I am not entirely sure how a virus would become resistant to this.

By not being a virus?

 

[Lord Kloo]

What happens if those infected cells are necessary..?

Also I can see either forcing a virus to rapidly spread in a victim to escape destruction or DRACO will go all SKYNET and see every cell as a potential enemy and take preemptive action by removing the human race..

Also was anyone else thinking this sounds like it could easily be turned to kill all cells, if that is true we just technically invented our own flesh-eating virus.. yay for science

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

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 comapnies.

I say this without a trace of irony or pop-culture: I see this being capable of going very, very wrong

Except that all evidence (that I'm aware of) to support these kind of things going terribly wrong are ironic or pop-culture driven.

Not quite all.

I have a book that actually goes over stuff like this that went wrong, and some were VERY close to being a danger to modern society.

There was a fetiler of some sort that used alchahol in it's making, and there was an unforseen consequence that would have caused most of the world's crops to become useless, if I recall.

I lost the book, so I don't remember exactly.

 

[Hal10k]

Call me cynical, but I can see two extreme problems with this.

1. Why would drug compaines ever let this happen? There's no money in curing diseases, they found that out with polio. The money is in treatment.

2. Even if it is released, how long until super-resistant viruses start springing up?

1. Curing a disease just means distributing the cure, maybe setting up a few temporary clinics. Treating it over the longer term requires a much larger overhead cost- setting up permanent clinics, keeping full-time employees to treat it, continuously producing the cure. Treating costs way more for the company than curing in the short term, and the comparative profits over the long term are negligible.

2. It doesn't matter what the virus is. The drug will still destroy it, simply by virtue of the fact that it's a virus. All viruses need to reproduce, and this drug prevents them from doing that at a fundamental level.

 

[King Toasty]

Yeah, DRACO totally doesn't sound evil. I'm on to you, MIT! *fist shake*

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

....And they say Slytherins are all worthless. Pfft.


OT: I have to begrudgingly agree with a few others here in saying "Drug companies are NEVER going to let this see the light of day" Heck I'd be surprised if the team who discovered this isn't already at the bottom of an acid vat in a factory in New Mexico somewhere....

...Disappointed, but un-surprised.

 

[TitanAura]

SCIENCE?! What has science ever done for us? Monitor Of-

 

[Hagi]

I wouldn't be all to excited.

I have no idea how many cells usually get infected during a viral infection but if this self-destructs all infected cells it could do serious damage if not used wisely.

I'd personally wait for testing, there's a pretty good reason why there's a rather lengthy and strict testing road to travel for all new medicine.

 

[DarkRyter]

DRACO is the best name ever.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

The world is going to end in seven days.

You have one chance.

That's what popped into my head, anyway.

Fucking stole my quote there, mate

This whole things rings a little false to me. If it is not, then further testing will give us plenty of reason to give up on this particular cure. Trust me, I'm fucking cynical.

Besides, if humanity suddenly entered a new golden age where every viral disease is curable easily, then the broken idealist inside me would be joined by a broken cynic. Nowhere left to run, nothing to live for.
/notserious

 

[Beertaster]

Plagues that have DNA strands (smallpox, polio) Are easy to counter since DNA changes so slowly. On account of the double helix it forms locking the genetic code together. RNA plagues like the flu change rapidly enough to evade a vaccine in a years time. So what the scientists are saying is. If we can't have a reliable way to kill an ever changing RNA virus; directly. Then we can try and stop its food consumption and starve it.

By the way cancer is a difficient in a person's own body, the cancer is a part of the human body that has gone a-wall so to speak. As such making the differentiations is difficult at best.

 

[Ghengis John]

They'll probably make it too expensive to use on the common cold anyways. Like every other medical treatment this'll do great things for the living standard of the wealthy though. I'd say its a good time to be rich, but it's rarely a bad time to be rich.

This also sounds a little dangerous, it'll be interesting to see how the testing shakes out.

 

[Ralphfromdk]

zombie apocalypse, here we come !!

 

[BlumiereBleck]

I smell these fellas coming too town...

 

[Baresark]

I see lots of jokes regarding this going bad. From a serious scientific perspective, it could go bad and kill lots of people. I would need to know more about how it seeks out the infected cells to be sure but: Cellular mutation is a fascinating and a complete mystery really. There is no specific gene that does something with a very rare exception (as what's found in the case of Sickle Cell Anemia, and a total of only 2% of all diseases known to have a genetic component). That being said, I would like to know exactly how the identifier works, and what prevents it from seeking out non infected cells. I mean, it is supposedly good against "any" virus. A group genetic mutation could all of the suddenly make it seek out and destroy healthy cells as well. Though, on the genetic landscape, this is very unlikely. A greater likelyhood is that it would adapt to whatever protocol they come up with and would be left at square one. Though, if they used this only on common and usually non lethal viruses only, and they viruses adapted, then we would just have more Flu (for example) that is resistant to this. I don't get the Flu, my immune system is completely top notch, and this would probably not affect me at all. We all get Ebola though, haha.

On the other side, I certainly didn't go to MIT. I am just a huge Biology nerd... thinking of pursuing an even higher education in the field Epigenetics. So, this is fascinating.

 

[Baresark]

Haha, attacking the food supply... if there are no people, then we WIN?!? Sorry, I was re-reading and thought of that.

 

[newwiseman]

Watch as it works perfectly but you have to take it every week due to it allowing your immune system to effectively die from inactivity.

Then anyone who can't afford the drug just drops dead.

 

[Avaholic03]

Call me cynical, but I can see two extreme problems with this.

1. Why would drug compaines ever let this happen? There's no money in curing diseases, they found that out with polio. The money is in treatment.

2. Even if it is released, how long until super-resistant viruses start springing up?

1. Curing a disease just means distributing the cure, maybe setting up a few temporary clinics. Treating it over the longer term requires a much larger overhead cost- setting up permanent clinics, keeping full-time employees to treat it, continuously producing the cure. Treating costs way more for the company than curing in the short term, and the comparative profits over the long term are negligible.

2. It doesn't matter what the virus is. The drug will still destroy it, simply by virtue of the fact that it's a virus. All viruses need to reproduce, and this drug prevents them from doing that at a fundamental level.

1. The constant income from treatment is far more than the cost. Pharma is still a largely unreglated industry, and they make shit-tons of money from every drug that treats symptoms rather than curing a disease. If they were to cure something as ubiquitous as the common cold, they lose money and job for all those people that made stuff to treat cold symptoms. And the one-time gains from distributing a cure only last so long.

2. Unless a virus comes up with a new way to infect a cell that does not trigger this DRACO. Then they're back at square one because that virus will thrive and create tons of different strains.