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Cure For Radiation Sickness Found?
Summit writes "A scientist has claimed to have discovered a radioprotectant that all but eliminates acute radiation sickness even in cases of lethal doses of radiation in tests on rats and monkeys, when injected up to 72 hours after exposure. They also claim the drug, a protein, has no observed negative effects in humans. They have not irradiated any people just yet, but if this turns out to be true, it could mean everything from curing cancer to making manned interplanetary space expeditions feasible... not to mention treatment for radiation exposures in nuclear/radiological accidents/attacks. If this drug works, it would mean a true breakthrough as past experiments with radioprotectants were not particularly promising in any respect." The only source for the story at this time is an exclusive in YNet News, a site with the subtitle "Israel At Your Fingertips." Such a radioprotectant would be huge news for Israel. Make of it what you will.
Actually, the BBC has a less slanted article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7341336.stm
Err .. no. It can ionize targets as long as it has sufficient energy to do so. Never seen a cloud chamber?
The secondary electrons it creates, and the secondary chemical species those create, do the damage.
I doubt that any of those molecules (H2O2, mostly) survive for more than a few minutes before doing damage to something that may or may no be important.
QUOTE : Researchers developed the drug after looking at how some resistant cancer cells are able to withstand radiotherapy.
It works by inhibiting the protein that initiates the cell suicide programme
In other word it does not repair radiation damage (cue the rad away joke), it just stops all the cells where this protein is present to die. Whether there was a good reason for them to die or not. It might be wonderful for radiation treatment, though. The researcher seems conscient of the risk (like new cancer developping).
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I know this is ./, but seriously, RTFA. It's all in there.
Yes, it would be an effective way to treat cancer. That's why it's being developed.
No, it doesn't affect the cancer cells, too.
In the studies, the potential to actually cause cancer is being investigated. In testing so far, it hasn't happened.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
It's published in Science according to the BBC. Jokes about tabloids aside, Science is a real scientific journal.
That Medical News Today article is about a different set of experimental drugs from the same company. The article is also from January. It is interesting though that Cleveland BioLabs is basically developing drugs that work on the process of apoptosis in opposite ways. The "Curaxins" described in the Medical News Today article are cancer drugs that promote apoptosis, while CBLB502, their experimental anti-radiation damge drug, seems to work to prevent it.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
Here is a link to an article about a radioprotective protein by the professor listed in the TFA.
Yes and no. Yes, radiation does the damage you mention, but then a mechanism causes the damaged cells to self-destruct. With large enough radiation exposure, the result is sickness and possibly death. If I read this right, this protein interrupts that cellular self-destruct mechanism, preventing bodily sickness and death due to damaged cells committing suicide.
So far, animal tests do not appear to show an increase in cancer, which would be a big concern with damaged DNA + free radicals floating around. Obviously, at this point there are no studies on whether this presents a long-term cancer risk, but since one of the applications for this protein would actually be in the treatment of cancer, I imagine that study will be underway soon.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
If you dig around a bit, you'll find that this compound doesn't fix damage done by radiation - rather it prevents the body from killing off the damaged cells, thus preventing radiation sickness. The makers speculate that it will increase cancer risk, but they so far have not observed this in lab animals.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
First, this isn't new; the company issued a press release on PR Newswire in January 2007.
It has nothing to do with Israel; the work is being done at Cleveland BioLabs in Cleveland, Ohio. The researcher behind this, Andrei Gudkov, is Russian. He was at the National Cancer Research Center in Moscow until 1990, then came to the US and became a professor at the University of Illinois.
This seems to be legitimate; they're in FDA Phase I human testing (safety only, not effectiveness.). That doesn't mean it will work; if it makes it through Phase II, it's real.