South Indian Frog Oozes Molecule That Inexplicably Decimates Flu Viruses (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: From the slimy backs of a South Indian frog comes a new way to blast influenza viruses. A compound in the frog's mucus -- long known to have germ-killing properties -- can latch onto flu virus particles and cause them to burst apart, researchers report in Immunity. The peptide is a potent and precise killer, able to demolish a whole class of flu viruses while leaving other viruses and cells unharmed. But scientists don't know exactly how it pulls off the viral eviscerations. No other antiviral peptide of its ilk seems to work the same way. The study authors, led by researchers at Emory University, note that the peptide appears uniquely nontoxic -- something that can't be said of many other frog-based compounds. Thus, the peptide on its own holds promise of being a potential therapy someday. But simply figuring out how it works could move researchers closer to a vaccine or therapy that could take out all flus, ditching the need for yearly vaccinations for each season's flavor of flu.

Comments

Decimate?

[Tovam]

Decimate: Kill one in every ten
That doesn't sound very useful.

Re:Decimate?

[Opportunist]

Which could be enough. Not to mention that decimate has gained a different meaning beyond "killing every tenth", with a more colloquial use it usually means "kills a portion of them" without going into detail how many.

Antibiotics don't kill all bacteria either. That's why antibacterial soap, cleaning and laundry agents usually hurt more than they help, since they only kill the germs that are susceptible to antibacterial treatment, leaving the "superbugs" unharmed. Essentially what you do that way is breed them by playing natural selection, culling the weak ones to give the stronger ones more room and food to expand into.

Why antibiotics work well in humans is that we have an immune system that doesn't care whether the bacteria are resistent to antibacterial treatment. What our immune system cares about is numbers. If too many bacteria come, it gets overwhelmed, at least for a time, and we get sick. If antibiotics kill off the majority of bacteria, the immune system can easily deal with what's left.

Re:Decimate?

[Chas]

It's one of those terms that people who like to pretend they're well educated use.

Unfortunately they conflate it with "devastate" (to lay waste or make desolate; ravage; destroy. to confound or overwhelm).

The misuse has persisted so long that it's distressingly common nowadays among the Inteligencia-wannabes. A side-effect of morons who have been indoctrinated by morons indoctrinating yet another generation of morons.

Re:Decimate?

[ravenshrike]

Having RTFA, it completely destroys all H1 flu viruses. None of the other types.

Re:I have always wondered...

[Anonymous Coward]

Antibodies themselves don't actually get rid of the viruses. They just serve as markers. Since different strains of viruses have different structures, they require different antibodies to be marked. The time from infection to elimination of the infection is due to the system developing the marker antibodies, dispersing them, and then hunting the offending items down via white blood cells.

Things like this usually function on a completely different mechanism. To compare to bacteria, some antibacterials attack the cell wall of the organism in some way that normal body cells are immune to. My speculation is that this probably works in a similar fashion, decomposing proteins specific to this type of virus.

Re:I have always wondered...

[EvilSS]

Antibodies, like all proteins, are pretty complex molecules. The binding sites in particular are very tricky. They need to be designed to bind properly to the target AND ONLY THE TARGET protein. This involves balancing physical geometry and electrical charges to match up with the target protein to get a correct fit and strong binding. This needs to happen at the atomic level, using amino acid building blocks. We don't even fully understand how our bodies do it yet. Think of it this way: we are still working towards building our first commercial, very basic nano machines. Our bodies (and all life for that matter) are filled with them. These machines, such as enzymes, are capable of doing amazing things, like building and re-arranging molecules at the atomic level. Each one customized to do a very specific task. We can hijack biology and genetics to make some of the things we want but as far as our technology goes, we are way, way behind nature.

Right now our best option is to identify existing antibodies and isolate the genetic material the organism used to create it and using that to create GMOs to reproduce it.