New Wonder Drug Kills Almost Any Virus
- Thread starter Earnest Cavalli
- Start date
It's hard for me to think of a protein casing and a bit of DNA as being alive but it is an interesting question. Non-the-less this still technically "kills" virus about as effectively as antibiotics "kill" bacteria. This stop virus from reproducing and antibiotic stop a bacteria's cell wall from forming. Yet we still say it kills the the thing. Isn't science silly?frago roc said:
Viruses that use this function to reproduce can never become immune to this treatment as the treatment attacks them on the most basic of level of simply being a virus. In other words, anybody saying "super virus" coming from this is clearly fear mongering. This is pretty much an unmitigated win for humanity here.
Seriously people. Draco is a STAR CONSTELLATION. You don't need to be that afraid of the name just due to Harry Potter. It means "dragon", and not all dragons are bad.
Anyway, I'm very impressed with the development. They should be careful about any side effects though, and I do think that killing off viruses may for example lower our resistance to them and/or create new, more resistant viruses. We don't want to help the damned things evolve.
We need to evolve with them since their evolution, as they are endemic to the Earth at present and their evolution is basically inevitable. That does (very, very sadly) probably mean incurring some casualties on purpose as opposed to always medicating. I'm no doctor so correct me if I'm wrong, but letting medicine cure everything for us in the short term could backfire in the long term. I'm just saying.
Still, it sounds very close to a panacea, which is both awesome and terrifying at the same time.
Anyway, I'm very impressed with the development. They should be careful about any side effects though, and I do think that killing off viruses may for example lower our resistance to them and/or create new, more resistant viruses. We don't want to help the damned things evolve.
We need to evolve with them since their evolution, as they are endemic to the Earth at present and their evolution is basically inevitable. That does (very, very sadly) probably mean incurring some casualties on purpose as opposed to always medicating. I'm no doctor so correct me if I'm wrong, but letting medicine cure everything for us in the short term could backfire in the long term. I'm just saying.
Still, it sounds very close to a panacea, which is both awesome and terrifying at the same time.
Sorry that doesn't sound too good to me, its all very well killing the host cells, but what if the host cells are neurones?
The cells making up our nervous system cannot be replaced as of yet.
If the drug does somehow defeat most viruses then I'll be happy to say goodbye to the flu. However I remain sceptical without something more solid than a news article. The media always jumps at the next big thing, even if there is very little evidence as of yet on whether it will actually work.
The cells making up our nervous system cannot be replaced as of yet.
If the drug does somehow defeat most viruses then I'll be happy to say goodbye to the flu. However I remain sceptical without something more solid than a news article. The media always jumps at the next big thing, even if there is very little evidence as of yet on whether it will actually work.
So it's mutually assured destruction?
Any cell that so much gets attacked by a virus, fights back, and then kills itself, trapping the virus.
Pretty interesting.
Any cell that so much gets attacked by a virus, fights back, and then kills itself, trapping the virus.
Pretty interesting.
Their god can kiss my shiny virus immune ass.BabyRaptor said:
Sounds pretty cool, my only concern would be regarding how certain the doctors are that it will indeed, leave non-infected cells alone, reminds me somewhat of nanobots, albeit, these are organic and nanobots aren't, but if used unwisely, nanobots would attack areas other than their designated targets, much like a balistic missle will continue to fly once it has missed its target (without intervention), I just hope that doesn't happen here.
As far as adapting, someone linked it in one of the evolution threads, where scientists were following two groups of microbes from the same starter group, put into two different environments. The one group, lacking it's necessary food supply, somehow spontaneously changed it's food of choice. It wasn't just a hokey line when Jeff Goldblum said, "Life finds a way".
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-12-03-microbe03_ST_N.htm
I worry about it's over-use. Yes there are instances where horrible sicknesses needed to be eradicated, but in the words of Wrex, one of the coolest characters ever: "That which isn't challenged grows weak", coincidentally talking about Quarian immune systems.
Scientific proof! Wrex is the man!
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-12-03-microbe03_ST_N.htm
I worry about it's over-use. Yes there are instances where horrible sicknesses needed to be eradicated, but in the words of Wrex, one of the coolest characters ever: "That which isn't challenged grows weak", coincidentally talking about Quarian immune systems.
Scientific proof! Wrex is the man!