9 ms·
DARPA Seeks to Shield Blood from Fungal and Bacterial Pathogens
- AftHurrahWinch 3y agoThere's the theory that a significant reason why mammals superseded reptiles after the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) mass-extinction event is because the cooler, darker planet prevented reptiles from sunning themselves to clear fungal infections. One of the major reasons cold-blooded animals bask on warm rocks in the sun is to artificially induce a 'fever' to raise their body temperature high enough to break down proteins in fungal infections. Warm-blooded mammals had the ability to do that naturally, even during the very long winter after the K-T event. [0] Yet, increasing global temperatures have been naturally selecting fungi which can survive at higher temperatures... and the average human body temperature has been decreasing in the developed world [1]. [0]: https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1002808 https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/j... [1]: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/01/human-body-temperature-has-decreased-in-united-states.html https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/01/human-body-te...
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y agoThe world has been MUCH hotter than it is today since mammals have been around (for most of it): https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-hottest-earths-ever-been https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-hotte...
- swores 3y agoWhich isn't to say that all mammals and especially not that humans can therefore cope fine come what may.
- ackbar03 3y agoI took a climate course or something in undergrad, and pretty much the only thing that stuck with me from that was technically we are still in an ice age? Since it is technically defined as when there is ice on the north and south poles. For millions (billions?) of years it alternates between there being ice and no ice. I keep wondering if I misremembered since it's so different to the whole global waking narrative
- _Microft 3y ago> I keep wondering if I misremembered since it's so different to the whole global waking narrative I don't see a problem with both being true: we can technically be in an "ice age" and still experience warming that would hurt us greatly in the future.
- kaliqt 3y agoYes but climate change narratives imply that we are the primary cause and must force change (even if harmful) to begin to even attempt to prevent some of these effects.
- balder1991 3y agoTo me, the simplest explanation for our average drop in temperature is indeed less sick people, which means less feverish people driving the average up.
- geokon 3y agoInteresting , but the problems is that dinosaurs aren't reptiles and are theorized to have been warm blooded. So probably a better comparison would be to birds However as far as I understand birds are found in artict/polar climates while dinosaurs were only at high latitudes during warm periods. It feels like there must be some fundamental physiological difference from birds other than flight - but I'm not clear what. Would be curious to hear an expert opinion
- upsidesinclude 3y agoArctic
- mcpackieh 3y agoBirds and dinosaurs are/were reptiles in the modern cladistic sense. They're both archosaurs, making them kinds of reptiles.
- peter_retief 3y agoI love speculating about the similarity of hives/nests and cells, bees raise the temperature of the hive if under attack as do mammals for pathogens. Some ants and termites actually farm fungi, called ant–fungus mutualism, which probably regulates temperature and humidity in the nest as well as providing nutrients.
- villgax 3y agoLaser zapping or high precision microwaves intersection to zap the mites could be a way
- DoreenMichele 3y agoThe program will be divided into three phases. The first phase will show proof-of-concept studies for safety and efficacy in in vitro studies. The second phase seeks to validate these findings with either fungal or bacterial infections in animal models, while the final phase aims to increase survival in animals exposed to both fungal and bacterial pathogens simultaneously. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like this is just an idea and they still are looking for basic proof of concept as step one. Good to see this issue is making someone's radar but I'm a little eh on the proposed solution.
- lolsowrong 3y agoThat’s DARPA’s bread and butter. They’re a research org, not a productization org.
- fithisux 3y agoI "foresee" soon a sponsored scientific research proposing to replace blood with bleach!
- cdiamand 3y agoHas anyone here ever done any work at DARPA, and if so how was the experience? Also, I'm assuming you need some kind of background related to the projects you apply to work on right?
- zzz95 3y agoAssuming that you mean working on cool research. You can interview and come in as a DARPA Program manager where you need to bring in a grand vision and would be in charge of revolutionizing a field(s). But what is it that you would do day to day? A DARPA PM doesn't do actual research but instead has access to the network of the best minds in research and uses them to shape a multi-million 5 yr 'program' and arrange for funding and transition paths to DoD and private industry. A PM's tenure is 5 yrs, so most PMs come in with a vision, start 2-5 programs, inherit other programs and then transition out. You can always look at the latest programs - https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities The people doing the actual research are independent research labs, universities, and small business. These are a combination of scientists and engineers publishing papers and taking the technology from papers to the field.
- usspybotnum3644 3y agoFrankly, that sounds awful. Like a honeypot for the smoothest bullshitters ever.
- AustinDev 3y agoYou're more wrong than almost any poster I've ever seen on Hacker News. At least you got a throw away before you posted this ignorant comment.
- explorer83 3y agoSource: I said so.
- 3y ago
- darkclouds 3y ago> preventive treatments for warfighters who suffer trauma from gunshot or blast wounds, or burns Re the burns, thats why the muscles are catabolised quickly, the creatine in muscle becomes creatinine which has Gram + & - antibiotic properties. Taurine, is a form of sulfonic acid, and sulfonic acid are precursors to sulfonamides, which were the first anti bacterial drugs, developed by a German scientist, whose work ironically helped save the lives of Winston Churchill and Roosevelts son [1]. Just two examples of many of the chemicals we can find in our diet which can have extremely useful properties for our health. https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/sulfanilamide2/sulfanilamidejs.htm https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/sulfanilamide2/sulfanilamide...
- rudyfink 3y agoHuh, I did not know they were related to sulfonamides like that. If you (or someone else) might like a book that goes into the history of sulfonamides, I'd recommend "The Demon Under The Microscope" by Hager (https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Under-Microscope-Battlefield-Hospitals/dp/1400082137/ https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Under-Microscope-Battlefield-Ho...). It was an interesting read.
- Metacelsus 3y agoThey're not. The structures are quite different.
- arthur2e5 3y agoHa, yes. The "sulfonamide" name may make it sound like just an OH acid/amine swap, but the buried part is that all such antibiotics have a big benzene ring hanging off the other end. The prototype is instead sulfanilamide. I don't see any merit to this antimicrobial hypothesis, honestly. Muscle catabolism happens whenever protein is needed: what's the microbial threat when a body is starting to starve and disassembles some muscles to get gluconeogenesis going?
- Metacelsus 3y agoThis is incorrect. Taurine is structurally quite different from sulfonamide antibiotics and isn't converted into them.
- arthurwu 3y agoSeeing SHIELD in a government press release, my first thought was Nick Fury, but not a blood roomba :)
- neodypsis 3y agoHopefully this stimulates further research into cocodriles' blood. They already have something similar to what DARPA is looking for, if I recall correctly.
- arthur2e5 3y agoLooks like it's a combination of strong antimicrobial peptides and good antibodies. (They recently figured out a defensin responsible for the fungus resistance). Not sure about if you can just pop these AMPs into human blood and how long the trial process will be though.