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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.
Finally I can get my hands on some sweet, sweet, Radaway!
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Actually, the BBC has a less slanted article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7341336.stm
There's more information on Medical News today if anyone wants a more medical take on this and a less ... Israeli interpretation (I don't know about you but I'm not too hung up on what nationality the researchers are and am more so interested in the technical details). Their 2008 annual report sheds a lot of insight on this as well. Although this information has been public knowledge since the beginning of the year, it should be interesting to watch their stock fluctuate throughout today.
My work here is dung.
No publication in a real scientific or medical journal.
Further, radiation sickness is difficult to fix. You've got alpha, beta & gamma particles bombarding cells, causing damage all over the place. Chemical bonds are broken, energy is added, and new chemical bonds form.
I really doubt a magic bullet can exist for the many types of cellular damage that can occur in different body systems.
So this can patch you DNA back together after it's been ripped to shreds?
Pardon me, but I'm a bit sceptical.
Why bother with miracle drugs when all you need to protect yourself from radiation is to duck underneath a flimsy wooden desk and cover your head with your hands?
Now nuclear war won't be so bad.
This sounds like trying to fix a fading/cracked dashboard with a fuel additive.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Dude, no! Now you need it more than ever, because they're not afraid of accidentally irradiating your brain while they read your thoughts!
And possibly make the treatment quite ineffective, if it also works on cancer cells.
"The medication works by suppressing the "suicide mechanism" of cells hit by radiation, while enabling them to recover from the radiation-induced damages that prompted them to activate the suicide mechanism in the first place."
So it turns the cell into a cry for attention?
Seriously though, saving cells damaged by radiation sounds like a shortcut to cancer. Is the claim of 'enabling cells to recover' realistic?
I wonder if this could be used to help cancer patients who are undergoing radiation treatment.
Radiation is a good way to cause cancer. Radiation does damage not only to cell structures, but also does irreversible damage to DNA, which can cause cancer. People being treated for severe radiation poisoning may survive only to find they are plagued by repeated development of cancerous tumors all over their body.
Alive still, but not nearly the rosegarden of living that the casual headline reader would envision.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Is that the stuff Helo kept shooting up while he was stranded on Caprica?
If you already have cancer, then developing another type of it one or two decades down the road is the least of your worries.
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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Hmmm.
But my muffler flaps help me get an additional 207 stone to the pint highway miles.
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Essentially everyone, if they don't get have a heart attack, kiss a bus, or otherwise snuff it early, will eventually succumb to cancer. Assuming this stuff isn't extraordinarily expensive or incredibly nasty in some other way, "survival now, cancer later" would be a good deal for all but the oldest radiation exposure victims.
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
Perhaps that was just speculation on the part of the submitter.
Curing cancer entails the difficult process of getting all the people who have cancer today to not have it later (short of dying). A radioprotectant will not make cancer go away. It also won't prevent new cancers, since radiation is not the only cause.
With Rad-Away ready for store shelves, Stimpacks, BuffOut and Jet are on the way to phase 3 trials.
Now i'll be able to get bitten by as many radioactive spiders with no worries!
I would doubt it. This would be far beyond what would be nessesary for statistically significant data and monkeys are expensive. If teh report got one detail wrong, what else is wrong with what was reported. I doubt they would even do 600+ mice or rats. That is just too high a number. I have my doubts about this report.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Why post anonymous troll... don't have any confidence in your assertions? Don't want to have your karma blasted?
North Korea is like an ugly step-child who will take every opportunity to get back at his more attractive more successful siblings. That kid nobody likes because they always lie about everything and don't take care of themselves, don't try to get along and are generally miserable and make everyone around them miserable.
Israel is like a self-centered only child who gets all the attention deserved or not and always expects that she gets to go first. The kids she cut in front of long ago despise her but everyone else just takes pity on her as an only child and invite her to their parties to be nice. Sometimes she helps out, if it's in her own interest and then everyone gives her a high five to encourage her to do more for others and be less self-centered...
Two completely different psychologies that can present themselves in similar ways at times... both are isolated in a way and feel threatened by those around them, so they both feel the need to create and put forward a strong defensive front and both over-react when anyone questions them about it. Otherwise, completely different.
Now let's get back on topic.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Anyone remember the disgraced "scientist" that claimed cloned babies, etc?
Maybe this only smells fishy because there's carp all over the damn place..
Depends if kdawson's running another Snake Oil Happy Hour Special. So, likely yes.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Looks like they may have discovered Hyronalin
.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Hyronalin
.
Wake me up when they have discovered Warp Drive.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Oh, *please* call it RadAway.
It doesn't. Read this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7341336.stm
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
As far as I know, radiation damages cells physically. Is it possible with chemical treatment to cure every and each such cell ? Sounds like science fiction.
Can you translate that into rods/hogshead for me?
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte
God kills kitten everytime you RTFA
You don't know what you don't know.
If you were published in Science, yeah you'd probably get slashdotted.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Not the BioLabs stuff, the wild speculation and false statements spouted here being imaginary. Not a one here so far has attempted to find out if there actually were peer reviewed publications by Andrei Gudkov on the subject of radiation treatment and/or radioprotectants.
Go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
Put 'Gudkov, Andrei' in as the search term
You'll get 52 results with his name given as 'Gudkov AV'; the abstracts make it clear it's him by giving his associations.
Repeat the search with 'Gudkov, Andrei radiation' as the search term.
You'll get 10 results, all of which pertain to radiation treatment, radioprotectants and specifically the role of p53.
Two of those entries are reviews. Those would be the most instructive to any who actually want to find out if there's actually research on the subject and what it's about. Here's the two abstracts:
(1) Nat Rev Cancer. 2003 Feb;3(2):117-29.
The role of p53 in determining sensitivity to radiotherapy.
Gudkov AV, Komarova EA.
Department of Molecular Biology, NC20, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44195, USA. gudkov@ccf.org
Ionizing radiation (IR) has proven to be a powerful medical treatment in the fight against cancer. Rational and effective use of its killing power depends on understanding IR-mediated responses at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels. Tumour cells frequently acquire defects in the molecular regulatory mechanisms of the response to IR, which sensitizes them to radiation therapy. One of the key molecules involved in a cell's response to IR is p53. Understanding these mechanisms indicates new rational approaches to improving cancer treatment by IR.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005 Jun 10;331(3):726-36.
Prospective therapeutic applications of p53 inhibitors.
Gudkov AV, Komarova EA.
Department of Molecular Genetics, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. gudkov@ccf.org
p53, in addition to being a key cancer preventive factor, is also a determinant of cancer treatment side effects causing excessive apoptotic death in several normal tissues during cancer therapy. p53 inhibitory strategy has been suggested to protect normal tissues from chemo- and radiotherapy, and to treat other pathologies associated with stress-mediated activation of p53. This strategy was validated by isolation and testing of small molecule p53 inhibitor pifithrin-alpha that demonstrated broad tissue protecting capacity. However, in some normal tissues and tumors p53 plays protective role by inducing growth arrest and preventing cells from premature entrance into mitosis and death from mitotic catastrophe. Inhibition of this function of p53 can sensitize tumor cells to chemo- and radiotherapy, thus opening new potential application of p53 inhibitors and justifying the need in pharmacological agents targeting specifically either pro-apoptotic or growth arrest functions of p53.
===
Note: 'Apoptosis' is the tendency for cells to die off based on signals from other nearby cells that are dying off -- a 'suicide signal'. This happens in many situations, radiation exposure being one of them.
As for emphasis on ethnicity, sure, they do mention it. The source noted is an Israeli newspaper. They have right to be proud since one of their citizens is accomplishing something notable to the world. Nobody seems to find it a problem when US newspapers note that a scientist is from the US. That's so common that it's not even noticed, unless you're not from the US. 90% of scientific publications are from the US. In those from other countries it's common for such emphasis to be included so the w
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
No they should have just said American. That's what it presumably says on their passport unless they have dual nationality.... and regardless of this it is utterly irrelevant for the story. Can you imagine the uproar had they said "white, male scientists"?
Not only that but I would imagine that it is somewhat insulting to Americans - are they really that ashamed of being a US citizen that they have to somehow dilute it by mentioning where their family emmigrated from?
The body does not repair cells that have been extensively damaged. The body expels damaged cells as waste, and makes new cells.
scams work exceedingly well if they propose solutions to deeply seated fears. everyone wants to believe it is true, even the harshest skeptics.
look sig is kool
If your blog happens to be a well respected, hugely successful news organization in a well respected, modern country, then yes, you will probably get slashdotted.
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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.
Understand the sociological background. Briefly, the situation is apparently this, in my opinion:
In recent past years, there was extensive TV footage of Israeli-owned U.S.-made Blackhawk helicopters operated by Jews firing at Palestinians on the ground throwing rocks. I saw that numerous times on TV. The footage was apparently taken from Blackhawk gun cameras, apparently by people who disagreed with the violence. Now, however, apparently because of the negative reaction, such footage is no longer shown.
The TV coverage upset 3 groups of people:
1) Arabs and Muslims. There are 1.1 billion of them, and they don't like being killed. Note that, in the entire world, there are an estimated 14 million Jews.
2) U.S. taxpayers. The money to buy the helicopters was apparently available due to U.S. government corruption. The U.S. government gives billions of dollars of taxpayer money to Israel every year, with the understanding that the money will be used to buy U.S.-made weapons. That is very profitable, apparently, since the Israelis are not in a position to negotiate a low price.
3) Jews who don't like the violence. There are Jews who think the violence will eventually be bad for all Jews everywhere. One Jewish leader said that the weapons were like throwing gasoline on a fire.
The first group has often threatened violence in return. Iranians, for example, have threatened Israel. This threat has been exaggerated by people in the U.S. who want to profit from another war.
Some Jews in Israel feel frightened by the threats from Iran. If there is a nuclear attack on Israel, a simple chemical that could repair radiation damage done to the body would be very popular. Any company offering such a chemical could expect plenty of investment by Israelis.
Can I get it in a spray mister so I can just spray it into my basement and not worry about all that pesky radon?
.. if a person is bombarded with radiation, do they carry it as well? Meaning, If that person is injected with that radioprotectant, can they affect other people that are not injected with the same radioprotectant?
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Cells first developed radiation damage mechanism to repair UV damage. When photsynthesis evolved, cells wanted to get closer to the sun, yet avoid the effects of UV radiation in an Earth lacking an ozone layer. Ozone depends on free oxygen in the atmosphere which was scarce in the first half of Earth history.
The second inducement was the incorporation of mitochrondria into eucharyote cells. This gave cells ten times the energy they had before to eventually power animal locomotion. However, mitochrondria spew out all kinds of nasty poisons like free oxygen, protons, and high electric fields. Cells had to develop mechanisms to neutralize these.
It will make governments less averse to using nuclear weapons.
Currently hooked on AMP
Consider this - with an effective "cure" for radiation, it ceases to become a bogeyman and people will be a LOT more comfortable with clean, efficient nuclear power stations nearby. It takes out a large leg from the alarmists that try to stop them from being built.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
eh, no. It will certainly help humans, but dirty bomb will still radiate soil, and everything that grows there.
Well there is a difference between radiation and radioactive, so I'll address your points with the goal of clearing any misunderstanding.
It's the entire Nuclear Industry that releases radioactive isotopes into the environment. Mining, enrichment, the reactors themselves and as yet no long term plan to contain spent fuel. ALL radioactive isotopes emit some form of radiation which is a cause for cancers. ALL radioactive isotopes 'Bio-concentrate' in the food chain and can be ingested. The amount of radioactive isotopes released into the environment is proportional to the activity of the Nuclear industry, so the likelihood of exposure increases over time. All radioactive isotopes analogue nutrients in the body so (for example) plutonium 'looks' like iron to the body is a potent cause of leukemia as the isotope decays - which will generally be longer than a human lifetime.
How are Nuclear power plants efficient when PWR's only use 0.3% of the fuel?
This 'potential' medication will only give Nuclear armed states the capability to inoculate their populations against a nuclear strike. So this medication actually *increases* the potential for a nuclear engagement because one side may feel they have the upper hand wrt protecting their population. This changes nothing about Nuclear Industry practices and will not stop you from developing cancer from ingesting radioactive isotopes.
A Nuclear bomb releases a lot of radiation *at the time*. The Nuclear Industry, including reactors, release a lot of radioactive isotopes which emit radiation *over time*.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
The only reason YNetNews decided to report on it at all was that the researchers were Jewish. If it were a Jewish American paper like, say, the Jewish Journal writing this report (and they do occasionally report on things like this), then it would be very clear why they specify "Jewish-American" - otherwise there's little reason for the paper to report on it. Similarly, Yediot Aharonot is an Israeli paper catering either to an Israeli audience (in its Hebrew edition) or a foreign Jewish audience (in its English edition). Given that I can't even *find* this story in the Hebrew edition, I assume the story is exclusively aimed at a foreign Jewish audience (of whom probably 80-90% are American), and they're going to YNetNews to hear (a) news from Israel, and (b) news about Jews. Hence also the emphasis on the impact on Israel, when the researchers are many thousands of miles away and are probably not thinking of Israel's defense as the first application for this drug. You have a problem with news written from an ethnic/national perspective, go read the New York Times.
The net result is that, sure, you live through the radiation exposure for the moment, but you've accumulated DNA damage that may or may not ever get repaired. So you set yourself up for a very nasty cancer risk later on.