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Possible Breakthroughs in Cancer and AIDS Research
FortKnox writes "Two possible medical breakthroughs have come to light in recent days. In Australia, it was discovered that pineapple extract can stimulate the body to attack cancer cells. And in Japan, Kumamoto University researchers have developed a drug that will block cells from the AIDS virus, thus making something akin to an AIDS vaccine." From the Australian news: "One of the molecules, CCZ, stimulates the body's immune system to target and kill cancer cells, the other, CCS, blocks a protein called Ras, which is defective in 30 percent of all cancers. QIMR researcher Tracey Mynott said her team had set out to find why the enzyme-rich bromelaine crush had such strong effects on biological material."
As much as I wish that wasn't true I'm afraid it is. I'm dating an immunologist right now, and even she has told me that the pharmaceutical companies aren't interested in cures, only lifestyle drugs such as giving an 80 year old a woody, or helping people loose weight. Basically there's no profit in cures, only the drugs you have to keep taking.
I just find it sickening that thousands die each year from HIV, cancer, and the sorts, but hey, old people are having sex!
"Insert Sig Here"
Anyone interested in AIDS science, who wonders why HIV is so misunderstood, would do well to start here and read a bit:
http://aliveandwell.org/
Funnily, the current treatments for cancer are about as profitable as it gets for drug companies. If the treatments were any better people would go into remission sooner, (needing less drugs) and if they were any worse people would die quicker (needing less drugs).
As a biomedical researcher who has worked on cancer mechanisms in the past, I speak with some authority: these "breakthroughs" are a load of hooey. The popular press really loves it when some dinky little research group at Bumblefuck U. discovers a modest effect on cancer cells, HIV, etc. by some commonplace natural molecule. We've heard it about pineapples, green tea, broccoli, red wine, you name it. Usually these studies are conducted under extremely artificial conditions using tiny sample sizes and ambiguous assays. To be cynical, if researchers want to get a positive result, they can usually contrive some experimental condition where they'll observe said result. I read Slashdot for interesting technology items but I have been very disappointed with the caliber of the biomedical coverage. There have been a number of stunning discoveries over the last few years (two that leap to mind are microRNA-mediated viral immunity and gene regulation or epigenetic memory in plants) that never made it to Slashdot because they require more than a high school level education in biology to appreciate. Evidently, mod points don't go to people with an advanced knowledge of biology. How would you feel if all of tech stories were press releases from Microsoft?
circumcision makes you more likely to contract STDs - contrary to urban mythology which was created by individuals whom falsified studies. The prepuce contains special immune system cells which secret an antimicrobial not to mention the prepuce contains 60% of the nerve cells, provides proper mechanical function (80% of incidents of 'painful coitus' for the woman is because of her partner being circumcised) I could go on.
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
Most done by labs at Universities like mine. If I find a cure for a disease, I'd get famous in my field. Not only that, but it would pretty much ensure that I will have all the future funding for my research that I could want.
Even besides all that, there are plenty of folks in my lab, in my department, and collegues at other Universities I collaborate with who know what I'm working on and how things are going. Hiding something major like a cure for a major disease just isn't going to happen. There is zero in it for me to hide my research, even if it were possible.
Now the drug companies would be the ones to actually produce the drug for sale. They might charge you an arm and a leg for the pill, but it wouldn't be hidden from you.
That is all. We now return you to your regular worries about the aliens reading your brainwaves. And look out for the black helicoptors!
Um... no. see below:
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New drug blocks HIV from entering human cells
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1423753,
">Indo-Asian News Service
Tokyo, July 7, 2005
"A new drug that blocks HIV virus from entering human cells and causes almost no side effects has been developed by Japanese researchers.
The drug, code named AK602, was tried on 40 AIDS patients in the US and almost no side effect was found.
"When patients took 0.02 ounces of AK602 twice a day for 10 days the HIV dropped to an average of one per cent, according to a research team led by Hiroaki Mitsuya of Kumamoto University.
"Current AIDS medications often lose their effectiveness after a few days due to the virus' resistance, but the AK602 reacts to human cells instead of attacking the virus, said Mitsuya. [...]"
Under current HAART treatment, it takes months for HIV viral load to go down that quickly, and side effects under current meds are not negligible (high cholesterol, weird fat distribution, major depression, intense diarrhoea...)
***Foucault is watching you..***
The supplement people advertise it as good for digestion rather than as a substance which helps fight cancer though.
It's interesting how much scientific evidence there is now for the medical effects of what are basically just food supplements. I started looking into this stuff when my finger joints began aching after 10 years worth of typing for 8 hours a day. (Sorted BTW)
e.g. The following all have scientific studies backing up the claims.
Glucosamine and chondroitin helps fight arthiritis, there's animal research showing that they may also help with sports injuries to joints.
Omega 3 oils significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks. They also help significantly with brain function; memory, concentration. They also help with joint suppleness and skin health. (Cod liver oil, fish oil, flax seed oil)
St Johns Wort contains a mood enhancing compound which has a significant effect on minor depression. As effective as stuff like Prozac, with fewer side effects.
Lycopene, from red fruit like tomatoes helps prevent prostate cancer.
There's a load more. This isn't to say that all health foods/supplement claims are valid and if you have a problem you should see your doctor, but the saying "you are what you eat" certainly appears to be true.
Deleted
It also fixes ruptured disks,
Years ago I had a screwed up disk , oddly in between my shoulder blades , I dont remeber the number, It was the result or rotating with a 50 lb wrench in my hand around a ladder to catch myself from falling
Sugery was the only option, then a doctor at Cleveland Clinic said they were doing trials with an enzyme extracted from papaya, the idea was they would "tenderize" the disk and manipulate it back in to shape and 48 hrs later the softeing effects would wear off and the disk would become firm over the next several weeks
Better than surgery and it worked 100%, the worst part , (other than the BIG scarry needle with "Aldofs" Meat tenderizer as the doctor joked was being put in "traction" for some 48 hrs after so it could firm up agian
The american public refuses to accept any danger/risk at all from there medications - and because of this it takes a HELL of a lot longer to develop anything then it did before.
Yup. Ironically, the litigious public provides an environment favoring quackery: for example, homeopathic "medicines," since they're all inert ingredients, are sure not to cause side-effects that would induce a lawsuit. (Never mind that they don't do any good...)
i think that's his point though. not so much the quality of medicines being produced, or the manner in which the pharmaceutical evolutionary process works, in as much as the choices of drugs that seemingly are being developed by drug companies.
Your point about the FDA doesn't obviate the fact that pharmaceutical companies systematically seek to treat symptoms instead of developing promising long term therapies for successful eradication of conditions. What it means is that the system is fscked from the top/down.
The other issue about pharmaceutical companies is their steadfast refusal to look into nutraceuticals because of intellectual property issues. I'd be interested in seeing how much pharm money these researchers get to look into bromelain components. Interestingly enough, indigenous cultures have raved about the anti-inflammatory properties of bromelain forever and it has already been historically used as a medicine. In fact, there are a number of discrete compounds which exhibit medicinal effects that, because of intellectual property issues, don't get the money behind them to get detailed analysis.
This is a case of PRESERVING THE STATUS QUO (i.e. incremental revenue increases) at the expense of the future of our society. It's a preserving of an existing infrastructure at the expense of a whole new way of thinking about medicine.
We're the most medicated in the world, but we consistently get beaten in life expectancy by places like Andorra and Okinawa, Japan... places where few medications are taken.
IMO, that's what the GP was getting at.
un burrito me trampeó.
I'm going to go buy some of the pineapple extract (bromelain) tonight and start taking it daily.
I have a bad case of melanoma (stage 4), and while there's still some hope in traditional treatments and clinical trials, I need every advantage I can get. If bromelain slows the growth of the tumors even a little, it's a huge help in combination with the other things I'm taking. And if it doesn't help, it probably won't do any harm. It's just natural pineapple extract, and it's been consumed for years.
I'm taking artemisinin (sweet wormwood extract) for similar reasons, though I do have to be careful with my dose of that because it's somewhat hard on the liver. I'm also waiting for an order of Vitamin B17 (amygdalin/laetrile) to arrive. The latter was somewhat hard to track down because of a stink the FDA raised about it a few years ago.
Dietary supplements alone won't cure me, but they just might help, and as such it would be ridiculous for me not to try them.
-John
I know this may be sort of thick of me, but does immunity also imply that you won't carry it?
I think you are mistaken. Quack medicine has had a long and successful history in the US. Homeopathy is nothing new.
Unfortunately, much of the population is missing critical thinking skills. Part of this may be due to evolution: We evolved in small tribes, thus we may give anecdotal evidence more credit than its worth. Part of this is probably due to the fact that medicine tends to be rather advanced technology and requires knowledge to understand and evaluate.
As a footnote, homeopathy may not be quack medicine. It may be possible that there is more than a placebo effect at work, and that water does "remember" what was contained in it, and that the memory of the non-diluted compound has a healing effect. This is judged extremely unlikely by most people (including myself) because it requires several possibilities that are almost certainly non-tree.
This brings up another issue: Modern medicine, like many fields, tends to be based upon the probability that something is true or not true. There are uncertainties at the core of medicine. We don't know how some things work and why some people get better. We tend to use research and scientific models and check if the clinical evidence supports them. Small shifts in thought happen in medince all the time: mouth germs can cause heart disease, ulcers can be caused by bacteria. In all probability, there are mainstream medical treatments being prescriped today that are either not effective or harmful to the patient (proportionally, such treatments are probably not very common). In all probability, there are probably more effective treatments out there as well. If you are ignorant of scientific method, research studies, and statistics, its rather easy to start to believe that homeopathy is effective, especially when the homeopath explains what he does in psuedoscientific jargon.
In the course of writing this comment, I found a slightly off-topic link discussing the 'myth' of the medical establishment fighting against the idea that bacteria causes stomach ulcers. The idea of a lone research fighting against the establishment makes a good story and for those unfamiliar with research, it may seem true, which is probably why such stories enter the pool of common knowledge. Unfortunately, with little else to go on, 'common knowledge' often leads to the wrong conclusion.