Sounds very promising; but my guess is limited used in vivo. If it works as explained, would be wildly successful at limiting the spread of HPV if used in condoms and lubricants. In Vivo, to cure viruses like HIV, it would also need to wake up and destroy infected T-Cells that make up a person’s viral reservoir. Without that, the infection persists. however, would be very useful for people who have to overcome multiple forms of resistance to several HAART drugs before they can become undetectable.
New antiviral treatment made from sugar
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Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#12Do humans / animals require viruses like we require bacteria to function?
I was curious also, so I googled “beneficial virus examples” and this was the top result.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/05/friendly-viruses-pro...
> Bacteria can be friends and foes—causing infection and disease, but also helping us slim down and even combating acne. Now, a new study reveals that viruses have a dual nature as well. For the first time, researchers have shown that they can help our bodies fight off invading microbes.
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#13Do humans / animals require viruses like we require bacteria to function?
Yes.
Evolutionarily, the adaptive immune system itself is the result of viral integration.
Though not a commensal relationship, priming the immune system for healthy function, principally for stopping cancer, see high incidence of leukaemia in children not exposed to pathogens (this might be pathogens more generally, it been a while since I took immunology but the immune system, treats cancer much more like viruses than it does bacteria (n.b. broad overgeneralisation)).
See also the use of phage to attack bacterial infections.
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#14This is interesting, but no mention of how the hosts process these molecules. We all know that our body has problems processing artificial molecules (artificial sweeteners, etc).
What problem does the body have with breaking down artificial sweeteners?
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#15Sure, but: "Florey had not patented penicillin, having been advised [...] that doing so would be unethical"[0].
Anyone else immediately thought: "OK, but they patented it, and the spin off company will presumably licence the tech for exorbitant sums, should it ever reach that phase of course, so it'll just be another expensive 1st world thing. No money? Bite the dust."?
And yeah, I know, patents encourage inventions and promote discoveries, we're all the better for their existence, they are literally the best thing since, well, invention of sliced bread.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin#Mass_production
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#16[0] how is this possible? I thought that virus mutations are pure natural selection + random mutations; ie. they will always develop resistance, that's how it works; and viruses have advantage in numbers; is resistance to this product considered "too big" jump in their evolution? [0] "Current antiviral drugs work by inhibiting virus growth, but they are not always reliable as viruses can mutate and become resistant t…
The classic antiviral* is a modified nucleotide, e.g. 5-fluoro-Uracil, that buggers up viral DNA/RNA reproduction and causes substrates to stick to the enzymes that transform them causes them to not work. The resistance is developed by the enzymes changing to not stick to the drugs.
This in contrast seems to be membrane disruption, i.e. bursting and disintegration of the viral membrane, which is host derived and thus the virus has no control over apart from any proteins it add to it (e.g. gp120 for HIV) and is therefore much.
*that isn't aiding the immune system in some way
N.B I haven't finished reading the paper yet. so take it with a grain of salt.
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#17This looks like this is an analogue of heparin, that preferentially binds gB (on HSV). It looks this is all about presenting the sulfation in the right shape for recognition, and the cyclodextrin is the delivery mechanism (and upgrade from gold nanoparticles). Not sure how this compares to straight up heparin if that’s the mechanism.
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#18Hey remember when this time last year Israeli scientists said we would have a cure for cancer within a year?[1] Yeah....
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2019/01/29...
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#19Sounds very promising; but my guess is limited used in vivo. If it works as explained, would be wildly successful at limiting the spread of HPV if used in condoms and lubricants. In Vivo, to cure viruses like HIV, it would also need to wake up and destroy infected T-Cells that make up a person’s viral reservoir. Without that, the infection persists. however, would be very useful for people who have to overcome multip…
From the paper:
> We show that the resulting macromolecules are broad-spectrum, biocompatible, and virucidal at micromolar concentrations in vitro against many viruses [including herpes simplex virus (HSV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), dengue virus, and Zika virus].
I wonder if they meant “in vivo”.
Re: New antiviral treatment made from sugar
#20Sounds very promising; but my guess is limited used in vivo. If it works as explained, would be wildly successful at limiting the spread of HPV if used in condoms and lubricants. In Vivo, to cure viruses like HIV, it would also need to wake up and destroy infected T-Cells that make up a person’s viral reservoir. Without that, the infection persists. however, would be very useful for people who have to overcome multip…
From the paper: > We show that the resulting macromolecules are broad-spectrum, biocompatible, and virucidal at micromolar concentrations in vitro against many viruses [including herpes simplex virus (HSV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), dengue virus, and Zika virus]. I wonder if they meant “in vivo”.
"in vitro" (literally in glass) is usually the opposite of "in vivo", so that would be a pretty huge error.