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Cancer Fighting Mouthwash

Posted by michael on from the don't-swallow dept.

revelation0 writes: "In the ongoing fight against cancer - A gene-therapy mouthwash shows promise of warding off oral cancer by destroying ominous growths before they turn malignant. The story notes that they are using viruses that have been programmed to kill cells that contain cancer-causing genes."

11 comments

  1. Mouthwash???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's some serious mouthwash. I wonder how effective it is against good old halitosis?

  2. It's just sulphuric acid by PD · · Score: 2

    Once you gargle with that, cancer is the least of your worries!

    --
    If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
    1. Re:It's just sulphuric acid by Zurk · · Score: 1

      real men gargle with pepsi.

  3. Re:Virii for gene replacement by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 2

    What bugs me even more is that even if you followed the pattern used by the word radius, etc, the word would be "viri".

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  4. Re:Virii for gene replacement by SIGFPE · · Score: 2
    Well let me see if I can make you worry even more.

    Every day billions of organisms reproduce sexually resulting in the birth of organisms whose genomes are random shufflings of their parents' genomes. Who knows what new organisms may appear at any moment?

    Even worse - viruses transfer genomic material between different organisms so that without human interference genes can move between species. Even between humans and other animals.

    Worrying yet?

    --
    --
    -- SIGFPE
  5. Virii for gene replacement by QuantumFTL · · Score: 1

    Virii are great as a naturally provided way to replace genes, however i can't help but wonder what would happen if these were to get out of control, could they not cause more damage than they were designed to do? I mean scientists are humans, even they make mistakes... I feel uncomfortable with biotechnology like this for the sole reason that there's so much yet to be understood about biology, especially on a cellular level. I'm all for helping people, and I'm not full of FUD, but genes still aren't even close to being fully understood... it's like how X-rays were used for everything, even in shoe stores where you could see your daughter's foot going into a shoe... but then they realized it killed people (or at least made them very ill).

    Anyways... I think bio research is great, stuff like this concerns me slightly though... so much room for error.

    Justin

    1. Re:Virii for gene replacement by QuantumFTL · · Score: 1

      I stand corrected. I looked up on dictionary.com, and you were confirmed. Interesting enough, google.com pulled up over 38000 pages with the imaginary word virii, I've heard it used several times.

      I wanted to take Latin, but we didn't have it at my high school. Oh well, I'm a physics major, I don't need latin that much.

      Thanks!
      Justin

    2. Re:Virii for gene replacement by HorsePunchKid · · Score: 1

      Arrrgggg... it's "viruses", not "virii". You can't just change any -us to a -ii to make a plural (there's no latin plural for virus; it would be like saying "furnitures" in english). I'm so tired of correcting people on this, but some force compells me to. I guess I'll just keep it brief, and refer you to this page, with much more information than I'll ever care to reproduce (and an interesting read).

      --
      Steven N. Severinghaus
    3. Re:Virii for gene replacement by Vintermann · · Score: 1

      I assume this "mouthwash" will never be sold in normal stores. After all, most of us don't have malicious tumours in our mouths, and for us using any medicine would be needless and potentially dangerous - let's not throw around genetically engineered virii more than we have to, at least not yet. It's true as you say that a lot is still unknown and that's why I want to study bioinformatics :-) .

      Of course, if I could install DeCSS in my genes with a retrovirus like one poster wrote, perhaps I would take the risk, just for fun. :-)

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  6. This is progress? by capt.Hij · · Score: 1
    Wow, changing a virus and letting it loose. Scary stuff. What I thought was interesting was this part:

    The doctors decided to conduct the study after a promising start in one patient, a 28-year-old woman smoker with extensive patches in her mouth. After two brief rounds of treatment, they disappeared. But later they came back, this time as cancer.

    Whoa, this is progress? I don't think I would like these guys to be my doctors! :-)

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  7. Minty Fresh Gene Therapy by pagsz · · Score: 1

    Cancer fighting mouthwash.
    What's next, contraceptive Q-Tips?

    Seriously, though, if it works and helps people, its all good.

    Giving my Listerine funny looks,

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    -- If any of the above made sense, I assure it was purely by accident.