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Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

sciencedaily.com

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Re: Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

#4

Post by fernly »

stogot wrote: post #3
shevy-java wrote: post #2

Sounds like an ad. "Eat this gum, it is so healthy."

Gum is often made of plastics so won’t be surprised if cancerous themselves

It says, "involving chewing gum made from lablab beans (bean gum)".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lablab --

Taiwanese researchers found that a carbohydrate-binding protein (i.e. a legume lectin) from lablab beans effectively blocks the infections of influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2.[60] Researchers from Finland and USA found that extracts from chewing gum manufactured from lablab bean seeds had broad-spectrum anti-viral properties, likely due to the binding action of Flt3 Receptor Interacting Lectin (FRIL) on viruses; the anti-viral effect was similar to that of purified FRIL

Re: Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

#5

Post by jerbearito »

fernly wrote: post #4
stogot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gum is often made of plastics so won’t be surprised if cancerous themselves

It says, "involving chewing gum made from lablab beans (bean gum)". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lablab -- Taiwanese researchers found that a carbohydrate-binding protein (i.e. a legume lectin) from lablab beans effectively blocks the infections of influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2.[60] Researchers from Finland and USA found that extracts from chewing gum manufactured from lablab bean seeds had broad-spectrum anti-vi…

Lol they didn't read the article.

Re: Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

#6

Post by dyauspitr »

stogot wrote: post #3
shevy-java wrote: post #2

Sounds like an ad. "Eat this gum, it is so healthy."

Gum is often made of plastics so won’t be surprised if cancerous themselves

Hunh I always assumed it was just some kind of modified natural rubber but it’s literally plastic (PVAc, PIB) that release microplastics into the saliva.

Re: Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

#8

Post by mdasen »

wxw wrote: post #7

Tangentially related, apparently xylitol gum can reduce cavity risk by killing off bacteria (which cannot digest but cannot differentiate xylitol from regular sugar) in the mouth.

Xylitol is really cool that way. The bacteria waste energy trying to convert it to a form they can use, but they just end up with at a dead end with xylitol-5-phosphate. Once they realize that they need to get rid of it, they convert it back to xylitol (so it can cross the membrane easier and probably to keep the phosphate). Of course, that means the xylitol is back to fool some other nearby bacteria into wasting its energy.

They end up wasting their energy on work that won't help them reproduce and needing to waste more energy getting rid of it.

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