New Wonder Drug Kills Almost Any Virus
- Thread starter Earnest Cavalli
- Start date
Honestly, I'm curious how this drug knows which RNA strands come from the virus and which just naturally come from cells? Sounds like it would be some very interesting science.
The vast majority of promising drug candidates turn out to not be viable, either because they're too dangerous or they just plain don't actually work.
As to resistance, well, I think this would be very good as part of a cocktail of drugs, but I think resistance would evolve easily enough - or at least eventually. When an organism can't evolve a defense against a drug, it often turns to offense, either destroying the drug or simply pumping it away from the critical location.
As to resistance, well, I think this would be very good as part of a cocktail of drugs, but I think resistance would evolve easily enough - or at least eventually. When an organism can't evolve a defense against a drug, it often turns to offense, either destroying the drug or simply pumping it away from the critical location.
Many viruses survive without the requirement of 'food'. Humans constantly try to create cures for things, only to force these things to evolve into something else. There will never be a world without viruses, cancer, or bacteria. They will always evolve and adapt. They were here long before we were, and will be here long after will blow outselves into pieces with nuclear bombs(and yes there is bacteria that can tolerate INSANE amounts of radiation, some 3000x more than a human[Deinococcus radiodurans])Braedan said:
Don't get me wrong I am glad they have found this and I am sure it will never get put to proper use because suffering = more money in pockets, but it will only unleash new viruses for use to find ways to kill.
Why do i get the feeling that if left unchecked, it might have the ability to inadvertently kill some DNA cells that might have been inadvertently caused by recessive genes or perhaps an environmental cause. (Mutations..)
Or maybe im just having a case of Wrong Genre Savvy
Or maybe im just having a case of Wrong Genre Savvy
Indeed influenza is a ssRNA but it is not a retrovirus. A retrovirus uses reversetranscriptase to convert its RNA into DNA and replicate that way. Influenza, being negative ssRNA, uses specific polymers to transcribe it into positive RNA which then can be transcribed into mRNA.Necator15 said:
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.
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.
damn that game. the first time i did it i got the bad ending even though i worked on the cure every day.Mr. Gency said:
I cleared my cache and did it again with a guide and I still got the bad ending anyway.
my estimate: seven.imnotparanoid said:
OT: happy face for sciences. /seal clap.
but this wont be good when crazy people hear about someone having a bad reaction.
Oh, I didn't notice that it only attacked double stranded RNA, but what about RNA strands that double back on themselves. That's very common in human cells. I would assume it has something to do with length of the strand.frago roc said:
Seems like I'm only adding to the tide of folks saying this is a bad idea. But.... I think it really can end up going poorly. On the other hand it can go amazingly well. That's the risk we take folks. But I will not be surprised if this cause a zombie outbreak somehow hahahaha.
