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From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

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Re: From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

#11

Post by Symmetry »

Allaun wrote: post #3

I'm not accepting this real until a respected news network investigates it. That and the fact that they didn't seem to spell check / proof-read it first makes me suspicious.

Wait, seriously? I thought you were being sarcastic until I read the second sentence. Mainstream news networks in infamously bad at evaluating the accuracy of scientific research, and often end up reporting ridiculous things even if they're drawing inspiration from valid science.

The way to evaluate the validity of normal scientific research is typically to see if any respectable research journal has published it. And as far as I can tell PLOS counts as a respectable journal. Before you really start believing the results you want to look for other people duplicating the results, but publication itself means that yes, this is serious.

Re: From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

#12

Post by ori_b »

syntaxide wrote: post #5
Tzunamitom wrote: post #2

Wow, is that real? How is this not front page news on every network? This would be as big as the discovery of antibiotics.

This appeared on reddit a few days ago, and the answer to your question is twofold. First, this has not yet undergone human testing. In the history of pharmaceuticals, there have been many drugs that performed favorably in animal testing yet failed in human testing. It is simply too early to tell if this drug will be successful in humans. Secondly, was the idea that eliminating all viruses, as this seems to do, is no…

There are many viruses dangerous enough that humans tend to die instead of developing resistance. I think that is enough reason to want this sort of drug around.

Re: From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

#13

Post by ghfgh6tghf »

syntaxide wrote: post #5
Tzunamitom wrote: post #2

Wow, is that real? How is this not front page news on every network? This would be as big as the discovery of antibiotics.

This appeared on reddit a few days ago, and the answer to your question is twofold. First, this has not yet undergone human testing. In the history of pharmaceuticals, there have been many drugs that performed favorably in animal testing yet failed in human testing. It is simply too early to tell if this drug will be successful in humans. Secondly, was the idea that eliminating all viruses, as this seems to do, is no…

So use the drug the second time around, too. It uses a property common to all viruses to work - not something that could be defeated with evolution a lá bacterial infections and antibiotics.

Speaking of which, I wonder if this would stop us using bacteriophages for treating bacterial infections. They show a lot of promise, again, because they're not resilient to evolution of their target bacteria, but they are viruses themselves.

Re: From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

#14

Post by adamgravitis »

Thank you for posting this on HN! This is exactly the kind of underreported bleeding-edge engineering I hope to discover on places like HN.

It's very easy for mainstream journalists to jump on new technologies once they've been developed, but it's up to engineers and scientists themselves to make exciting potential directions better known.

Re: From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

#15

Post by api »

ori_b wrote: post #12
syntaxide wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This appeared on reddit a few days ago, and the answer to your question is twofold. First, this has not yet undergone human testing. In the history of pharmaceuticals, there have been many drugs that performed favorably in animal testing yet failed in human testing. It is simply too early to tell if this drug will be successful in humans. Secondly, was the idea that eliminating all viruses, as this seems to do, is no…

There are many viruses dangerous enough that humans tend to die instead of developing resistance. I think that is enough reason to want this sort of drug around.

It could also make viral gene therapy considerably safer, and generally reduce the potential bioterror risk of having genetics technology around.

Even if the drug had nasty side effects, it would be great as a last resort similar to ultra-powerful "atomic bomb" antibiotics.

Re: From MIT, a cure for all viruses?

#20

Post by FreeFull »

syntaxide wrote: post #5
Tzunamitom wrote: post #2

Wow, is that real? How is this not front page news on every network? This would be as big as the discovery of antibiotics.

This appeared on reddit a few days ago, and the answer to your question is twofold. First, this has not yet undergone human testing. In the history of pharmaceuticals, there have been many drugs that performed favorably in animal testing yet failed in human testing. It is simply too early to tell if this drug will be successful in humans. Secondly, was the idea that eliminating all viruses, as this seems to do, is no…

This would be great for viruses that the immune system can't get rid of on its own, like herpes or HIV. For stuff like the common cold, it'd probably be best to let the immune system deal with it (same how you wouldn't use antibiotics for a minor bacterial infection).
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