Cod Enzyme Kills Bird Flu

Jon Golden writes "An Icelandic cod enzyme might be the cure for bird flu. A recent experiment, which the Icelandic company Ensímtaekni hf. took part in, indicates that in five minutes, the isolated fish enzyme killed 99 percent of H5N1 viruses. The killer enzyme, called penzim, was extracted from the intestines of cod by Ensímtaekni and is currently being developed for beauty products and various types of medicine. The experiment on the H5N1 virus was conducted in London. CEO of Ensímtaekni and biochemist Jón Bragi Bjarnason said he is very excited about the results of the bird flu experiment. "People have feared that the bird flu virus will change into a human flu virus and now we have a likely cure in case that happens." Bjarnason also believes that penzim might prove a cure for common flu and cold, eczema in children and arthritis."

Comments

Cure?

[nebaz]

Not to state the obvious here, but if it kills 90% of the virus, doesn't that just mean that next year we'll get a flue completely immune to this stuff?

Re:Cure?

[HappySqurriel]

As a guess, I would assume that this would involve much further study to determine why the enzyme was so successful in the first place and then try to make it much more potent; essentially, they see the possibility of making a cure from this but it is not ready yet.

Re:Cure?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course the flu tends to mutate quickly enough for vaccines to be almost completely useless within a couple years so I guess ultimately it will become resistant to this treatment.

However, if this is as effective as it sounds, it might be enough to end the strain entirely. Our immune systems are easily strong enough to win if you knock out 90% of the virus. It is unlikely that you'd be contagious with the 10% that your immune system has to kill on its own. Combining reasonably effective vaccines with highly effective treatments is what you need to wipe it out.

Since this sounds too good to be true, I think it has to be taken with a grain of salt. It isn't likely that it'll work as well as they hope.

Re:Cure?

[myrdos2]

The concern about the bird flu is that it's completely alien to humans, and is therefore very deadly. Once people have been exposed to it, their immune systems will be much more resistant to mutated strains. Also note that new viruses, such as swine and avian flu, tend to become less deadly of their own accord! It's not in the survival interests of a virus to kill off its hosts. (Who will then carry the virus?) Less deadly strains tend to do better.

No, it's the first emergence of an unknown virus that is feared here, and it's the new exposure that has the potential to kill off hundreds of millions of us. Next year's strain of the flu will be much less severe, and it will gradually degrade to just another influenza. That's whats happened with these things in the past.

So something that can kill off the virus when it first emerges would be very beneficial, because that's when the most lives are lost.

Re:Cure?

[tloh]

There is an infectious threshold that a contagion needs to pass before it can spread through a population as an epidemic. If used properly, a drug that is 99% effective can nip it in the bud before the epidemic stage provides an opportunity for widspread replication and the chances for mutation.. If it doesn't reproduce much in the wild, it doesn't get a whole lot of opportunity to mutate into something dangerous. Used incorrectly, or abused in obviously stupid ways to serve other ends, be it political or otherwise, resistance *will* be a problem in the future.

The problem of non-human hosts (birds, obviously, but also swines), however, complicates the picture a bit. Using drugs to treat human cases goes a long way toward keeping an epidemic in check. This is especially true considering how mobile we are in this day and age. The agriculture industry has also had mixed success in keeping domestic livestock safe. But what worries a lot of experts are migratory wild birds. They are the one variable we have almost no control over.

On a slightly different note, the flu seems to be giving up a lot of its secrets. There is a timely article from reuters via Yahoo that highlights some new (?maybe old but uncirculated in the mainstream press?) information researchers have uncovered about the 1918 flu and the similarities to H5N1.

As such, maybe this drug, if developed and used properly, is enough to deal with the problem. Kill 99% with the drug. Let the immune system, unmolested and unprovoked, deal with the remaining 1%.

Re:Cure?

[KKlaus]

Reminds me of something someone once quipped about AIDS. Finding an effective killer of HIV is easy, and in fact pretty much every average joe has it in his house. Its called bleach. Now finding a cure that won't kill the host organism...

Re:Cure?

[TheLink]

Just a note: Polio is not eradicated yet. And may even be making a comeback due to stupid countries like Nigeria.

oh good

[ILuvRamen]

"the isolated fish enzyme killed 99 percent of H5N1 viruses"
yay, it left the ones that are immune so they can spread instead. Just give em some zinc and echinacea and chicken soup lol.

WTF???

[cosmicaug]

WTF? Bleach also kills H5N1 viruses. That does not make bleach a cure for the bird flu.

Re:The amazing Cod

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep itself from being driven close to extinction by overfishing?

Smells fishy...

[Wdi]

Seriously.

It is highly unlikely that any enzyme can be developed into any useful cure for a virus infection, for pharmacokinetics, transport and stability issues alone.

It is not difficult to kill anything. The same amount of bleach would kill reliably 100% of the virus in the test tube.

The problem is to develop a substance which is selective, has acceptable side-effects and actually reaches the target when the virus has embedded itself in the cells, which is not easy.

This May Bring Back The Old Cure-All

[Soloact]

This might bring back the old use of Cod Liver Oil. Our Grandmothers weren't stupid, they knew its health benefits.

Re:A few interesting things about the bird flu

[cosmicaug]

There are at least a dozen _known_ diseases that will just as gleefully sicken or even kill the human animal.
Why we're so upset about the bird flu and what makes it special, I don't know, except of course that the entire
subject is pushed into our faces and through our ears nonstop through the media. (Just to forestall some
comments: The rabies virus could mutate too and become airborne for all we know. Gnade uns Gott should that ever
happen).

That's a pretty fucking awful example to pick.

It is bloody unlikely that rabies will mutate into an airborne virus anytime soon. It would essentially have to become a completely different virus.

Influenza, on the other hand, is known for it's amazing mutational and recombinational "ability".

Rabies is not known for causing great pandemics associated producing very substantial mortality.

Influenza, on the other hand, is known for causing great pandemics producing very substantial mortality.

Rabies does not truly have the potential to create massive epidemics in livestock animals which may serve as a reservoirs from whence a human disease outbreak may start.

Avian influenza, on the other hand, does.

Rabies does not truly have the potential to create massive epidemics in wild animals which may serve as widespread infectious sources for domestic animals and as a reservoir from whence a human disease outbreak may start.

Avian influenza, on the other hand, does.

Animal infected by rabies are very rarely (if ever) the types to engage in the sorts of great migrations which may sometimes literally span the globe.

Animals infected by avian influenza, on the other hand, sometimes are.

I could probably go on (or maybe not --but I'm not about to try).

Stop the presses!

[overtly_demure]

Wow! An enzyme destroys bird flu viruses under carefully controlled lab conditions in saline buffer, therefore it will also kill them in a greasy and presumably protein-denaturing cosmetic preparation! Not only is this horrible non-disease that has so far been a miniscule threat to humans now defeated, albeit only in principle and under conditions completely different than those being proposed, but it can be done by simply wearing makeup! Don't fear the bird flu, get all decadent and wear lots of makeup! While you're at it, drink! Do drugs! Have sex with abandon! Buy lots of cool stuff! Get totally wild! Buy an iPhone! Run around in the street screaming and singing while flailing your arms around and lolling your tongue! Take cell phone videos of yourself and friends doing it all! We are saved!

Yet another example of shameless self-promotion by a scientist who should know better. Much better.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion