Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

'Virus Sponge' Could Improve Flu Treatments, Diabetes Care, Vaccine Development

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the many-pegs-in-many-holes dept.

University of Maryland researchers have announced a new "virus sponge" that could aid in the treatment of, among other things, avian flu. The sponge woks similar to kidney dialysis, filtering the harmful virus from the blood. "The virus sponge is based on a technology called molecular imprinting. In molecular imprinting, researchers stamp a molecule's shape into a substance (in this case, a hydrogel--a sponge-like material). When the specific molecule filters through the hydrogel, it fits in the imprint hole and is trapped."

9 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Eh by ShooterNeo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I honestly have no idea how this is even a practical technique, much less a breakthrough. Rather than this dodgy "aerogel" technique, you could use the molecules that nature has used for millenia : antibodies. All you need is an antibody against an epitope of the virus (a unique molecular pattern somewhere on it's surface), and then you bind the antibodies to a medium. Or, there's a way to generate the membrane bound antibodies present in B cells, and to adhere those to a surface. In any case, such a "filter" has existed for years, though as far as I know, this technique hasn't been used to filter the blood of a living patient.

    Then again, neither have these researchers : they are just claiming it is practical.

    1. Re:Eh by bigtrike · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Perhaps you should take your method of water collection to remote areas of the desert in a poor nation and save some lives. I don't think the manufacturers of desalination technology could possibly have paid informants watching out for someone in every remote village, so you probably won't get killed by an elite squad of assassins too quickly.

      You have the power to purchase or grow your own food with reduced amounts of chemicals and fertilizers by buying organic or growing some of your own food (hopefully taking advantage of rainwater collection so you're not wasting resources with city water or potentially poisoning yourself with well water).

      Also, I would hope that someone as concerned as you would take some steps to minimize their contribution to pollution and oil wars by using a vehicle with minimal oil usage, such as a bicycle.

      Solving the world's problems starts with each of us.

    2. Re:Eh by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Also, I would hope that someone as concerned as you would take some steps to minimize their contribution to pollution and oil wars by using a vehicle with minimal oil usage, such as a bicycle.

      Heh, I do better than that. I walk virtually everywhere I go. Carrying the bike across the highway is real pain. I actually do make an effort to live close to the source of what ever I need, including my intoxicants. I made a personal commitment never, ever to take a job that would require me to drive. And it has been successful for over 20 years, I'm proud to say. And I will not waver on that no matter what. My license has since expired, and I have no plans to renew. Mainly because I'll never be able to pass the eye test again, but I don't miss it a bit. So, I'm a bit ahead of of you in that department. Soon, the black tubing will go the roof to heat my water, a small windmill will pump it up from the cistern to the tank on the roof. And I will be redirecting the rain water into that cistern. I am walking the walk, okay? Baby step for now, because of limited fundage, but it is happening. Getting off the electrical grid will take a bit more time. But there is a lot of incentive due to the electric company's lack of reliability. All these things can also work on a big scale.

      Solving the world's problems starts with each of us.

      You never heard me say otherwise. In fact read my posts in the "Happy Wiretap Day, everybody" article. So, since you brought it up, may I assume that you are also making a small commitment? Or are you simply trying to discredit the ideas I brought up with silly comments about some kind of conspiracy which never entered my mind, but you seem to be reading into my post? Vivid imagination you got there. I'll leave the spooks to Tom Clancy and Hollywood.

      By the way, I would venture to say that it would be much cheaper to simply pipe in the rainwater than it would be to build the plant. We have pipelines transporting poison all over the planet now. Water should be a piece of cake in comparison. And furthermore those people in the desert are suffering more due to dirty politics and their own corruption, in addition to those outsiders taking what they do have, than any kind of actual inability to do what's necessary to improve their condition. Solving their problems begin with them, not me. If they ask for help, I'll more than happy to do what I can. I make a point of showing the path of least resistance. It is their choice to take it or not. You know, the old "leading the horse to water" thing.

      All this gives me plenty of doubt as to the true value of the subject in the article. It's all very nice of them to produce these things, but this one amounts to little more than rich boys and their toys. Us poor folk need not apply...until the rights expire anyway.

      --
      What?
  2. A neat idea, but... by HaloZero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...it's only a short-term solution. It's great if the patient is to be kept isolated, away from any other source of new infection (after the 'sponge' is removed). The sponge works to remove the active contaminant from the patient's bloodstream - it does not, however, allow the patient to build up an autoimmune response to the target contaminant. Neat idea, tho.

    --
    Informatus Technologicus
  3. Not just for viruses by brianerst · · Score: 3, Interesting
    While the article focuses on the ability of these imprinted hydrogels to filter out viruses, or ingestible versions for blocking glucose in diabetics, a whole host of other uses come to mind.

    For instance, why not use it to filter out cholesterol or arterial plaque? Go in to the clinic once a month and clean out the pipes. Or an ingestible version that binds with saturated or trans-fats? Granted, there's problems with having too much undigested crap (anal seepage, anyone?), but a lot of that is because current fat blockers use a shot-gun approach that knocks out good and bad fats. If you can just bind the trans or saturated fats and let the unsaturated ones in, that could be an amazing boost to the health of all Slashdotters - pepperoni pizza suddenly becomes a health food...

    1. Re:Not just for viruses by Doddman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wonder if it could be used to prevent alzheimer's disease? After all, that is caused by a buildup of amyloid beta protein and this could theoretically be used to "sponge up" excesses of it.

      --
      If creativity is the field, copyright is the fence.
  4. Curiosity question by jd · · Score: 2, Interesting
    (Yes, even I don't know everything.)

    There are a number of cancers which leave free-floating cancerous clumps of cells in the bloodstream. Patients with such cancers often get extra chemotherapy injected into the spine to stop it reaching there. A free-floating cancer clump would seem to be easier to filter with this sort of sponge than an individual virus.

    Would it make more sense for these folks to use the product on a market that actually exists right now, so that they can refine and develop the idea further for viruses who have not yet evolved to be transmissible between humans and therefore whose lethal form is as yet unknowable?

    (It sounds a great idea, but great ideas need to be researched thoroughly, which isn't cheap. Free-floating cancers could be a potential source of revenue between now and when it's needed for a viral epidemic.)

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  5. not practical, publish/perish by digitalderbs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Selectivity is most important. It's great that this gel can 'capture' virus proteins, but does it bind them more tightly than other proteins? This could be very problematic if it removes native proteins in the human serum. Many proteins look alike structurally at low resolution -- nm resolutions. If this system doesn't discriminate based on other factors like electrostatics, then this couldn't possibly be an effective filter.

    The next problem is accessibility. I'm assuming that this gel only traps proteins outside of cells. I'm not a virologist (I'm structural biologist & biophysical chemist), but it seems to me that if a virus has integrated itself into your genome or populated most of your cells, you're screwed.

  6. A few critical notes by kanweg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Viruses live in cells. They can move from one cell to the adjacent next cell when the first infected cell lyses. Furthermore, even if a virus ends up in blood, would you catch it with a filter at a central point, or would the virus already have infected another cell by then before reaching the filter.

    Blood doesn't like to be filtered. Damage to blood by hemodialysis is well known (which is why you everyone should be a donors, especially as the chance that you will actually be a donor is minuscule).

    That is not to say that the technique cannot have any use, but in the area of blood filtration, I don't think so. Even for treating donated blood it may not be as useful as one might think, because the virus (if not in a blood cell), may be attached to a (red) blood cell.

    Bert