New drug could cure nearly any viral infection

[Sinistrous]

Source: MIT News

Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago. However, such drugs are useless against viral infections, including influenza, the common cold, and deadly hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.

Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.

In a paper published July 27 in the journal PLoS One, the researchers tested their drug against 15 viruses, and found it was effective against all of them — including rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several other types of hemorrhagic fever.

Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html

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What can I say but WOW!!!

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Sinistrous.

[William769]

2. Anything about this that mentions acquired immune deficiency syndrome?

[Sinistrous]

10. Possibly...

However the related articles I found were WAY over my limited knowledge of molecular biology, so I will not say for sure that HIV is one of the infections susceptible to this drug.

on edit: The side effects of this drug could be horrendous. I have just been reading that the double stranded RNA that this drug targets is not always a bad guy.

[William769]

12. I did a search also.

Gave me a headache trying to read what was written. I have a appointment with my infectious disease Doctor next week, I'll mention it to him.

[udbcrzy2]

3. Quick, we need to use it on all the wingnuts! n/t

[Phoonzang]

4. Good news. I'd take it. Well..after a year or so.

Just to make sure there's no I Am Legend business. :)

[trud]

5. Erroneous, and jumping the gun.

This is lab stuff, and no, it is not effective against all viruses.

[nyy1998]

7. It doesn't say ALL viruises, but "most" viruises nt

[closeupready]

9. Curing mice of H1N1 is more than "lab stuff", whatever THAT means.

nt

[valerief]

6. I'm sure Ricky and Michelle will tell us if Jeebus didn't want viruses to live in us,

then he wouldn't have put them there. So we should shut up and stay barefoot and viral.

[iandhr]

13. I thought Jeebus was only a term

Homer Simpson used.

[soupkitchen]

8. Take your government hands off my viruses

[Proletariatprincess]

11. sounds like a wonderful breakthru....

it could save millions of lives if it isn't blocked by the greed of Big Pharma and the insurance industries.
If this really is a reliable medication against virus, you can bet that some malifactor of corporate greed is thinking of ways to gouge the public and create a scarcity even if there is none.
I wish there was something that could be done to prevent it from happening like that, but the days of Dr Salk and the concern for public health are long gone and now profit is the only goal of the health care industry in the USA today.

[TexasProgresive]

14. Not LBN was posted in LBN on Aug 12

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4959115&mesg_id=4959115

[Sinistrous]

16. Oh nuts.

I didn't search back that far.

Sorry mods.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LetTimmySmoke]

17. Was this tested on HIV?

Couldn't find info on that one. It likely means they haven't yet.

[closeupready]

18. Seems like they have devised a method, rather than a specific medicine.

So they are postulating that it could possibly work on HIV just like it could on most any other virus. Seems like it's sort of like programming a microscopic homing device to attack a specific virus.

It has not been tested on HIV, from what I've read, but it is definitely encouraging for those of us who are hoping for a cure someday.

[Marrah_G]

19. This would be great- I cannot take choices 1 and 2 for bacterial infections

Fluoroquinolones (Cipro, Levaquin, Floxin, etc )paralyze me and sulfonamide antibiotic give me a life threatening allergic reaction.