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Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV
- drstrangevibes 14y agoI guess they won't need to add the 'tingle'sensation to that gel
- thedeepself 14y agothe HIV-AIDS hypothesis is a hoax instigated by a cancer fraud. See Duesberg.com for details.
- homosaur 14y agoBuncha articles on Duesberg's bullcrap science. http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/data/cohen/cohen.xhtml http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/data/cohen/cohen.xhtm...
- 98709870987 14y agoYour handle and your comment are an oxymoron.
- jack9 14y agohttp://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Understanding/howHIVCausesAIDS/Pages/HIVcausesAIDS.aspx http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Understanding/howHIV... While there is no definitive study that shows a direct correlation, there is enough evidence to satisfy Koch's postulates for infectious cause (even if the ultimate cause of AIDS is not singular or an incidental byproduct of HIV). Show me a double blind study indicating that HIV is not a cause of AIDS and I'll show off the science.
- jlgreco 14y agoGee, that sounds familar... Felt the need to create a new account? http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=GeorgeJetson http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=GeorgeJetson
- StacyC 14y agoIs this legit? I have no idea what to make of it.
- jack9 14y agoLots of things kill HIV. Bleach kills HIV. Soap kills HIV. Air kills HIV. So what. The trick is delivery or implementing a barrier. This is an interesting solution via a popular barrier for a particular problem (1 person with HIV but they still want to transmit fluids), but ultimately not sufficient to stop the spread.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoThis is pretty cool. I can't find Dr. Hood's paper on scholar.google.com yet so its hard to know exactly what is going on, but the mechanism sounds plausible.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThe article sort of breezes right by the sentence saying it can also work against tumor cells. Also, at the end- "This work was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations"
- sageikosa 14y agoThe basic mechanics of this just read awesomely. Viruses generally "attack" cells by having protein sheathes with molecular "hooks" that latch onto cell wall receptors to disrupt the membrane and deliver the viral payload into the inner workings of the cell. This technique uses a similar mechanism (molecular latching structures) that are scaled and aligned to fit into the viruses outer sheathes themselves, then disrupt the virus structure between host cells (DNA/RNA doesn't last long without protection). It's like fighting viruses with virus-like binding mechanisms, except the attack vector isn't self replicating.
- standeven 14y agoFull article is available here: http://www.intmedpress.com/journals/avt/abstract.cfm?id=2346&pid=31 http://www.intmedpress.com/journals/avt/abstract.cfm?id=2346... Abstract is free, full text is £17.50.
- ars 14y agoSo this is not intended as a cure, and can not function that way. Rather it's for use as a protective to prevent someone getting infected. And it might have value as a treatment (but I'm guessing it will be too toxic inside blood).
- sageikosa 14y agoIt might be able to arrest an infection's internal spread to other tissues and cells, but the virus would still live in existing infected cells. They'd have to find the therapeutic levels necessary to "cleanse the blood", and do clinical trials to look for side-effects (since they'll've introduced a solution of foreign bodies into the bloodstream). It might be that the levels to cleanse the blood are too high in most cases to be economically or therapeutically viable; or maybe not. In any case, the approach is pretty neat.
- shpxnvz 14y agoHood also sees potential for using nanoparticles with melittin as therapy for existing HIV infections, especially those that are drug-resistant. The nanoparticles could be injected intravenously and, in theory, would be able to clear HIV from the blood stream.
- carbocation 14y agoBut the reservoir for HIV infection, the thing that makes clearing HIV particles from the blood insufficient to cure it, is the CD4 T-cell. So just clearing the blood of HIV will not be curative.
- gizmo686 14y agoI don't have much biology experience, but if you can keep the blood stream clear of HIV, wouldn't that prevent new T-cells from getting infected, allowing the count of healthy T-cells to start growing as the body makes new ones?
- carbocation 14y ago
- ttyrq 14y agoYeah and so does chlorine bleach.
- ttyrq 14y agoHIV will just mutate so the particle can't bind to it anymore and stops working. The real solution is better immune system design.
- makomk 14y agoDoubt it. As I understand it, the outer envelope is a fairly important functional part of HIV - it needs to be very similar to normal human cells or the immune system will destroy the virus.
- tokenadult 14y agoThis submissions is a press release from a university press office. There is a well established science news cycle http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174 http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174 in which a university press office will hype a preliminary research finding, and then credulous news organizations will amplify the hype. The incentive to do this is gaining external funding for research projects and looking good to prospective students or faculty candidates. The preliminary finding mentioned in the press release submitted here will take a lot more clinical research before we can be sure that this is safe and effective for human use. http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html That's been the usual experience here on Hacker News--gee-whiz press releases about breakthroughs submitted a few years ago end up not having any actual clinical safety or effectiveness as the preliminary findings are followed up by clinical trials. It's great to continue research on means of killing viruses or errant cells in human tissues, but it will be a long while, if ever, before this is a first-line defense against AIDS or any other health risk.
- crusso 14y agoThese two things do not sound great together: Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom developing a vaginal gel I'm just sayin'...
- ams6110 14y agoCondoms are already an effective preventative for sexual transmission of HIV. Will a person who's not using condoms be any more likely to use a "vaginal gel" ?
- marquis 14y agoYes, women who may not have control over condom use.
- mistercow 14y agoCondoms are effective, yes, but they do occasionally break. It seems to me like a second layer of defense is a pretty good idea.
- gojomo 14y agoSure, if that person wants a pregnancy but doesn't want to transmit HIV -- a scenario mentioned in the article.
- goombastic 14y agoI am curious, would nano particles filled with salt or any other substance also do the same thing? I mean if you can get close enough to the virus, you could kill it anyway you like.
- hakaaaaak 14y agoNanoparticle safety still unknown: http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/nanotechnology-safety-120829.htm http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/nanotechnology-... I know that is a generic article, but is it safe or not? Is it worth the chance to put it in lube as mentioned?