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

A few interesting things about the bird flu

[gd23ka]

and why I am sick and tired of the subject...

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).

One thing that is however noteworthy about the bird flu (wohoo!) is that "Tamiflu" the experimental drug that is
supposed to alleviate its symptoms was developed by Gilead Sciences, the company Donald Rumsfeld was Chairman
of the Board of during 1997 until being sworn in as Secretary of Defense in 2001. Another noteworthy thing is
that the United States Government has purchased and stockpiled large amounts of this largely unproven medication
and guess who still owns stock in Gilead? (La Rouche pharmaceuticals produces the drug but it pays royalties to
Gilead).

Re:A few interesting things about the bird flu

[gd23ka]

I picked rabies for the "Shock and Awe" effect (remember that slogan from somewhere?). I suppose
Ebola virus or the lesser known Marburg virus would be better candidates. But then you might
also note that Rabies has claimed to our knowledge more human lives than the bird flu.

Another fact is, virii and other pathogens have been out and about for a Very-Long-Time and the bird
flu didn't just appear yesterday. In other words, it had plenty of opportunity for
thousands of years to kill us - just like the thousands of virii we don't even know about and
that could cull the human herd any day.

Re:A few interesting things about the bird flu

[Waffle Iron]

Nevertheless, in contrast to most every other disease, an influenza pandemic *did* suddenly kill ~50 million people less than a century ago. This proves that it can happen, and nothing fundamental has changed that would prevent it from happening again. None of your hemming and hawing changes that.

Re:A few interesting things about the bird flu

[gd23ka]

Nothing fundamental has changed that it will be the bird flu that will kill any sizeable
portion of the world's population and still it is getting watts of media attention.

An asteroid impact by the way is just as likely and will prove probably far deadlier to
all species on the planet.

A little less likely than the asteroid scenario but still a possibility would be a
gamma ray burst caused by some calamity of sorts like a supernova in our nearer
interstellar neighborhood. Mighty bird flu might survive that, though it would be a
phyric victory without a host.

I'm sure that between us and the rest of slashdot we can come up with a couple of
hundred likely doomsday scenarios before the discussion goes overboard with say "DRM enforcing
land mines". As it stands, the flu issue is getting too much attention and I for one
refuse to participate in what I perceive to be a Fear Uncertainty and Doubt campaign.

Re:Cure?

[cosmicaug]

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.

As a wild assed guess, it is so successful in the first place because it is probably some fairly potent and fairly non selective protease. The fact that it kills viruses in a test tube means almost nothing. For this to be effective as a drug it must be able to kill these viruses in a living organism and it must do so while producing minimal damage to said living organism.

Beautiful

[digitalhermit]

Many species of cod are endangered or near-endangered. A while ago some politician (don't remember who) made a statement to the effect that, "who cares about insect." Would be funny if human survival ended up being dependent on some obscure snail.

Re:Beautiful

[dbcad7]

I remember reading that Cod were getting smaller, because the smaller fish escaping the nets, were breeding with smaller fish escaping the nets.. Looked for a link and can't find the story... maybe I dreamed it.. Never mind.

Re:WTF???

[Socks of Doom]

Bleach will also kill you. This enzyme, seeing as it was already in development for medicine and beauty products, hopefully won't.

Though I wouldn't go out and wolf down covergirl if you get the sniffles.

Can it cure E.D. too?

[pestilence669]

You know what else kills bird flu (in much less than 5 minutes)? Ajax (the cleaner), bleach, fire, sulfuric acid, and I'm sure rat poison will do *something*

I'd like to see what this ass-grease (I mean, intestinal enzyme) does when it's actually injected into someone. Until then, I refuse to get excited about something that's less effective than Clorox.

Re:Cure?

[AlexanderDitto]

How do you kill hundreds of thousands of viruses with a laser that causes photosynthesis? Bah. Have you been reading too much of the national Exagerator?

Photobiomodulation, according to Wikipedia, sounds like what you're talking about, but the article is relativley lacking in sources, and only boasts that "Certain wavelengths of light at certain intensities (delivered by laser, LED or another monochromatic source) will aid tissue regeneration, resolve inflammation, relieve pain and boost the immune system." Doesn't sound much like removal of Hep C or HIV.

As human beings, we tend to get very excited at even the smallest most remote possibility of a miracle drug. I definitley think this needs to get lots of funding, and fast, but don't be too disappointed if it fizzles out. We've just got to keep trying. Hopefully, we find the plant or organism that holds the key before it dies out (aka we kill it).

Re:This May Bring Back The Old Cure-All

[eluusive]

Or you could use flax seed oil instead and stop eating so many omega-6's instead of consuming oil from a practically endangered species.