MIT develops drug to fight all viruses

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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Scientists at MIT are developing a new drug that may fight viruses as effectively as antibiotics like penicillin dispatch bacteria. The broad-spectrum treatment is designed to trigger cell-suicide in cells that have been invaded by any virus, thereby halting infection, while leaving healthy cells alone.

In lab tests using animal and human cells, the new therapy was effective against 15 viruses, including the common cold, H1N1 influenza, dengue fever, a polio virus, a stomach virus and several types of hemorrhagic fever. "In theory, it should work against all viruses," said Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory's Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group at MIT, who invented the new technology.

MIT Scientists Develop a Drug to Fight Any Viral Infection – TIME Healthland
 
I ant puttin' that shit in my body. "All-In-One" solutions to a problem never work and have side effects that you won't know about intil you have em.
 
I hate to be overly critical about this stuff but it is usually crap put together by the universities to get public support for lavish taxpayer grant money. There are so many subjective phrases like "are developing" and "are designed" and "pretty good" that it makes the story meaningless.
 
To fight infection, human cells have proteins that attach to dsRNA and trigger a cascade of reactions that stop viruses from copying themselves. Rider had the idea to combine one of these proteins with yet another protein that induces cells to commit suicide, a process known as apoptosis.

The end result is a drug called DRACO (for double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizers): when one end of DRACO binds to dsRNA, it signals the other end of DRACO to initiate apoptosis, killing cells before the virus has a chance to replicate.

"Viruses are pretty good at developing resistance to things we try against them, but in this case, it's hard to think of a simple pathway to drug resistance," said Karla Kirkegaard, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.

In lab experiments, DRACO completely cured mice infected with the H1N1 flu virus. The researchers think the treatment could potentially be used to thwart outbreaks of new viruses like SARS.

MIT Scientists Develop a Drug to Fight Any Viral Infection – TIME Healthland
 
In lab experiments, DRACO completely cured mice infected with the H1N1 flu virus. The researchers think the treatment could potentially be used to thwart outbreaks of new viruses like SARS.
So give it to AIDS patients and see what happens over 20 years.

Until then, I ant puttin' that shit in my body.
 
All you need is words like "hope" and "change" and you have another political message. Let us know when the stuff is ready, not when you think it's politically feasable to tell us what you wish will happen.
 
Wonder if it would cure the common cold?...
:confused:
Drug Compound Wipes Out Multiple Viral Infections
August 17, 2011 - Imagine taking a single pill that could cure almost any viral infection. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States say they have developed a drug that, so far, has killed every virus it’s been tested on in the laboratory.
The drug - known by the acronym DRACO - works by chemically targeting viral-infected cells and prompting them to self-destruct, eliminating the disease in the process. DRACO takes advantage of the fact that when viruses infect animal cells, they insert pieces of their genetic core - complex strands of nucleic acids called RNA that regulate cell function by switching genes on or off. This viral RNA wraps itself around the single-strand RNA in the animal cell to form a unique molecule called double-stranded RNA. By recognizing these double-stranded RNA molecules, DRACO can hone in on virus-infected cells, explains Todd Rider, a senior scientist at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory where the compound was developed.

Rider says that when DRACO detects a cell with double-stranded RNA, it activates a so-called cellular "suicide switch," in much the same way that human cells are programmed to self-destruct if they begin to grow out of control. “If a cell thinks it’s becoming a cancer cell, it will try to kill itself for the greater good," said Rider. "So in this case, the DRACO treatment is activating the suicide switch in the presence of any double-stranded RNA. So, it will kill any virus-infected cell.” Rider says DRACO has been successfully tested in petri dishes against 15 viruses that cause everything from the sniffles to life-threatening diseases. “So far we’ve cured the common cold, four different strains of the rhinovirus," he said. "We’ve cured H1N1 influenza, two different strains. We’ve cured a stomach virus; we’ve cured the polio virus, various DNA adenoviruses, dengue hemorrhagic fever and several examples of arenavirus and bunyavirus.” The last two viral infections can cause inflammation of the brain.

Rider says there are many more viruses he wants to test DRACO on, including the virus that causes AIDS. A broad spectrum antiviral drug that works against HIV could be especially useful since some people can develop resistance to anti-retroviral drugs. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, agrees that DRACO could potentially work against the human immunodeficiency virus. But Fauci says a variety of effective drugs are already available to treat HIV. “So, there isn’t a compelling need to have a drug like this for HIV," said Fauci. "It’s more relevant for those viruses for which we don’t have any good drugs, and there are plenty of those around.”

Fauci says there is a trend in microbial research now to develop catch-all drugs like a universal flu vaccine that would protect against all strains of influenza, and DRACO, with its potential to target and eliminate all types of viral infections. “The more we learn about the fundamental basics of viral biology and bacterial biology and other microbial biologies, the more opportunities we have to develop interventions such as this particular apparently broad-spectrum antiviral," he said. MIT’s Todd Rider predicts it could be another decade before DRACO is ready for general use. An article describing DRACO’s antiviral properties is published in the journal PLoS One.

Source
 
To fight infection, human cells have proteins that attach to dsRNA and trigger a cascade of reactions that stop viruses from copying themselves. Rider had the idea to combine one of these proteins with yet another protein that induces cells to commit suicide, a process known as apoptosis.

The end result is a drug called DRACO (for double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizers): when one end of DRACO binds to dsRNA, it signals the other end of DRACO to initiate apoptosis, killing cells before the virus has a chance to replicate.

"Viruses are pretty good at developing resistance to things we try against them, but in this case, it's hard to think of a simple pathway to drug resistance," said Karla Kirkegaard, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.

In lab experiments, DRACO completely cured mice infected with the H1N1 flu virus. The researchers think the treatment could potentially be used to thwart outbreaks of new viruses like SARS.

MIT Scientists Develop a Drug to Fight Any Viral Infection – TIME Healthland
This is fabulous news, Chris. Thank you for celebrating it on this thread.

:clap2:
 
I ant puttin' that shit in my body. "All-In-One" solutions to a problem never work and have side effects that you won't know about intil you have em.

Oh come on. An extra eye or a sixth finger could be really useful.
Well, we have an entire healthcare system that has taken the average American lifespan of 1776 (26 years) and increased it more than twice by the Twenty First Century. My grandma lived to be 96. She was still mowing her lawn at the age of 85. :)
 
Amazing development if it pans out.

Wonder what blowback will result from this if it does?

Aside from the obvious economic problems, I mean.

We're already dealing with the economic consequences of people living beyond their ability to be productive citizens, so assuming this vaccine works, that problem is obviously only going to get much worse.

I've alwasy assumed that when I grow feeble I'd dies quiety from pnuemonia, (the old man's friend).

But what if I don't get that virus that will fill up my lungs and kill me?

How long will society be willing to carry very old who will not die but cannot work, one wonders?

So many old people, but now, thanks to Global warming, so few ice flows.
 
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dont get excited .....its to fight Viruses not Hair growth.....
Please do not feed the trolls and note the ignore feature provided free of charge by this site. :cool:


I hate to be overly critical about this stuff but it is usually crap put together by the universities to get public support for lavish taxpayer grant money. There are so many subjective phrases like "are developing" and "are designed" and "pretty good" that it makes the story meaningless.
Yeah because I'm sure they'll get tons of money without having to provide any actual evidence of it's effectiveness and/or potential or facts n stuff. They'll just throw around phrases and whoosh, money rolls in.

:rolleyes:



I've alwasy assumed that when I grow feeble I'd dies quiety from pnuemonia, (the old man's friend).

But what if I don't get that virus that will fill up my lungs and kill me?

How long will society be willing to carry very old who will not die but cannot work, one wonders?
Oh they'll die. Be it cancer or some other malady, or simply from organs wearing out. Or from being a lazy spoiled fat cow, as that seems to be all the rage.

It's a shame stupidity isn't fatal; we'd solve the overpopulation concerns in a heartbeat eh :cool:
 
The advent of penicillin and the concept that we could target bacteria with medications was probably one of the greatest advents of the last century and single handedly reduced soldier's mortality in World War II greater than any other single factor.

Now we could possibly be onto something equivalent for viruses and people are pissing and moaning about it?

Some of you knuckleheads are too much.

BTW, this is a shocking concept, but there are more viruses int he world then the common cold. Do you guys realize, as is, that if small pox were unleashed on the population, 6 million people would be affected/died for everyone that could seroconvert?

Have you considered the ramifications of Ebola reaching this country?
 
Always read the fine print. The words "are developing" indicate that the scientists aren't even sure if the stuff works on rats and this generatin will probably be dead and buried by the time they get a license to test it on humans. It's a bold faced attempt to get more funding or to make sure the scientists can pay off their foreign made cars with taxpayer funded lavish grants.
 

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