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Virus Tamed To Attack Cancer, Cancer Drugs To Treat Alcoholism
ScienceDaily is reporting that scientists at Oxford University seem to have adapted a virus so that it attacks cancer cells but does not hurt healthy cells. "Adenovirus is a DNA virus widely used in cancer therapy but which causes hepatic disease in mice. Professor Len Seymour and colleagues found that introducing sites into the virus genome that are recognized by microRNA 122 leads to hepatic degradation of important viral mRNA, thereby diminishing the virus' ability to adversely affect the liver, while maintaining its ability to replicate in and kill tumor cells." Relatedly, cancer drugs already approved for use may be cross-functional as a treatment for alcohol addiction. "Now, the researchers show that flies and mice treated with erlotinib also grow more sensitive to alcohol. What's more, rats given the cancer-fighting drug spontaneously consumed less alcohol when it was freely available to them. Their taste for another rewarding beverage -- sugar water -- was unaffected."
Shaded of I Am Legend here...
Presumably these scientists have never heard of "I Am Legend"...
Rats given the cancer-fighting drug spontaneously consumed less alcohol when it was freely available to them
I didn't know that rats "spontaneously" consume alcohol when it is freely available to them.
_previously unknown_ role in controlling the insects' response to alcohol. OTOH, you have to wonder how germaine the insects' response is to homo sapiens.
Am I the only one made uncomfortable by the thought of introducing genetically engineered viruses into people, even if it is only for medical treatment? ...
*starts assembling his Zombie Apocalypse kit*
In any virus intended for therapeutic use in humans, allowing the virus to retain its reproductive mechanisms is just a bad idea. Viruses mutate rapidly and there's no guarantee that such a modified virus might not develop the right signals to enter and reproduce in healthy human cells. More promising efforts using engineered viruses involve the isolated production of viral structural RNA and coat proteins without the complete genome ever being copied or reproduced. This creates viral smart-particles that can be re-engineered to deliver payloads (therapeutics, contrast agents, nanoparticles etc) into targeted cell species. Nanovector is a recent start-up out of NC State University to commercialize this tech developed at a lab I used to work in as an undergrad.
"Their taste for another rewarding beverage -- sugar water -- was unaffected."
research sponsored by coke?
Let me be the first to voice the opinion of laid off IT workers:
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
So viruses can cure cancer.
Well what about all those cancer drugs we have already? They'll just sit on the shelves!
No no, we can use them to treat alcoholism.
But what about all the booze!? Pour it down the drain?
No, of course not. We're going to re-brand alcoholic beverages as medication. We're investigating is usefulness in treating social anxiety. While our trials are still in progress, the initial data looks very promising. We've also patented a time-release delivery system. With any hope, we'll have millions of people prescribed daily doses of the new wonder drug.
Excellent!
Chemists do it with moles.
Along the same lines as I Am Legend, there was that whole John Titor thing back in 2000 where the guy writing it said stuff about using viruses to attack cancer. Yay internet culture to science.
I'm a laidoff IT worker and I say...
Call me when they cure something, not the random notes to keep funding going.
For the cancer patient could be an improvement over other alternatives.
But if you play with living things there, things that try to survive replicating, mutating, and in the case of virus, finding more hosts.
Of course, getting rid of that particular virus could be easier than getting rid of cancer, and that is something more to put into consideration.
If I didn't know any better, it almost sounds like there's a direct link between cancer and alcoholism... alternative medical folk like Doug Kaufmann and Tullio Simoncini have been saying cancer is a fungus for years. Now we have a "cancer treatment" that helps treat alcoholism as well? What's the common denominator between all alcoholic beverages? Yeast... another fungus.
I'm not big on the method being used because using a virus in this manner just reeks of bad idea, but the evidence certainly lends credence to more reasonable and pre-existing methods of treating cancer that are anti-fungal in nature.
By "alternative medical folk" do you mean quacks, or were you just misrepresenting their positions? Cancer as host cells gone awry (possibly due to an initial external influence, with the external influence not necessary for continued growth) is incontrovertible. If certain anti-fungals work on them, it's because it happens to work as an anti-cancer drug, it doesn't mean the cancer is fungus.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Give me a virus that can kill sperm cells effectively... one that eventually gets killed by my immune system requiring more virus ingestion to maintain my reduced sperm cell count. It would be the perfect male birth control so long as it doesn't mutate.
Yeah... you do know they're only doing that to confuse you, do you?
It's actually at a likelyhood of zero.
(Yes, I know what the meme is, but, no, this altmed crap is crap.)
That would mean that everything we know about how tumors start, grow, and go into remission is wrong. That everything we know about chemo and radiation is wrong.
But there's no evidence that Kaufman and Simoncini's work actually does work. Where's the peer reviewed studies? Where's the followups? Clinical trials?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Most of what we call alcoholism has been cured. The problem is that anybody who might tell alcoholics about it is either financially or emotionally invested in an existing treatment. It's like religion (see responses to this post as demonstration), and it's very frustrating.
For all the details, see the recently published book on the topic. I'm not selling the book, and if you want the details for free, I can provide you with that, too.
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
is Ultrasound-Inducible Gene Therapy by Dr. A. Funicello M.D. http://alexfunicellomd.changeip.org/
Can someone please explain this in Layman-talk?
I never knew alcoholism was a big problem for mice. Nice to know we've developed a treatment. Some of Mickey's behavior was getting kinda embarrassing...
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Posting to fix a bad moderation. Sorry. WTB confirmation button.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
If I were a rat with cancer, I'd probably be drunk all the time too. Then when another rat sneezed on me and transmitted the cure like it was a cold, I imagine I wouldn't be motivated to drink so much. In fact, I'd really clean up my act trying to woo that other rat who sneezed and saved my life.
Ahh, yes. A tyrosine kinase inhibitor can play a role in alcoholism. But wait, cancer cells have tyrosine kinases, too!
I've found the connection between cancer and alcoholism: they both occur in human beings.
I dunno, this has zombie outbreak written all over it.
This should be tagged iamlegend, tvirus and of course whatcouldpossiblygowrong. Damn all taken already!
But... the future refused to change.
Now we have a "cancer treatment" that helps treat alcoholism as well? What's the common denominator between all alcoholic beverages? Yeast... another fungus.
Easy test: give a bunch of alcoholics synthetic ethanol, forbid them other alcohol and see if they develop withdrawal symptoms. For bonus credit, instead give them an exact replica of their favorite beer except that the alcohol is synthetic and it doesn't contain anything yeasty or otherwise fungal in nature or origin.
If they don't develop withdrawal symptoms, it's probably just the chemical and not its yeasty fungal origin that's the big deal.
Also, "alternative medicine" means "unscientific" in all the cases I know about. In other words, when theories disagree with observable events, they think the theory, as opposed to the observed events, is the best predictor of future events.
"Now, the researchers show that flies and mice treated with erlotinib also grow more sensitive to alcohol. What's more, rats given the cancer-fighting drug spontaneously consumed less alcohol when it was freely available to them. Their taste for another rewarding beverage -- sugar water -- was unaffected."
Ethanol -> acetaledhyde -> acetate + water
The middle product is a toxin. Limit the 2nd reaction rate so that builds up and the organism gets sick and learns to avoid, or dies. It's simple conditioning, accomplished quite easily for decades with disulfarim (Antabuse).
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Parent links to a site selling a book.
The site makes a point of saying how the authors are "Scientists!!" and "PhDs!!", and how the treatment is based on "Science!!".
MDs are reasonably quick to adopt new promising treatments (sorry, no citation). Science doesn't need to be hyped. Yet the site smells like hype.
I read a brief passage from the chapter "For Medical Professionals". It talked about studies (so there may be some science to back it up), but I couldn't seem to find the references to peer-reviewed articles. [Not that I looked very thoroughly, though.]
Make up your own mind. Please do it on a more thorough basis than I have made up mine, though ;-)
Their taste for another rewarding beverage -- sugar water -- was unaffected.
Do you mind if I have some of your rewarding beverage to wash this down ?
Squirrel!