"Honey-Pot" Protocells Trap Viruses
Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Weill Cornell Medical College have designed a novel new way of fighting viruses. Current treatments include inhibitors and other chemical treatments to improve the body’s immune response and weaken the viruses’ ability to infect. Viruses themselves are vicious, in that they are not really alive; they are a solid protein capsule that hijack cells in order to reproduce themselves; infect, spread, and infect.
This new approach uses synthetic “protocells” to combat Henipaviruses (measles, mumps, parainfluenza etc.). Henipaviruses rely on a tagging protein to mark cells for infection. The virus then stabs into the cell and injects its code. It only has one shot to proliferate.
These protocells (coated in the tagging protein) act as a viral sink, baiting viruses into attempting to infect them, and becoming ineffectual as they inject themselves into inert globules. This method works well because the administration of the treatment can work all throughout the vasculature with minimal side effects, and relies on viruses’ own machinations to accomplish the job.
In addition, this technique is extremely unlikely to generate any super-viruses, because in order for a virus to not get trapped, it would have to evolve the ability to not inject itself into things.
I found this article interesting because viruses are difficult to inhibit and kill by nature. This idea is ingenious, in that instead of killing them, it just tricks them into wasting their shot. Little cells roaming around the body attracting viruses is perfect in terms of distribution throughout the body, and reduction of viral spread. Every cell that isn’t hijacked reduces the number of viruses in the body immensely; such a massive positive feedback suffers from every single reduction, and these protocells appear to be capable of absorbing hundreds of viruses apiece. That it relies on a viral mechanism vital to viruses’ efficacy makes it even better, as the likelihood of the treatment becoming ineffectual is almost zero; the method only selects for non-infecting viruses. For an apropos analogy, see http://xkcd.com/810/.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/nios-uac030211.php
This new approach uses synthetic “protocells” to combat Henipaviruses (measles, mumps, parainfluenza etc.). Henipaviruses rely on a tagging protein to mark cells for infection. The virus then stabs into the cell and injects its code. It only has one shot to proliferate.
These protocells (coated in the tagging protein) act as a viral sink, baiting viruses into attempting to infect them, and becoming ineffectual as they inject themselves into inert globules. This method works well because the administration of the treatment can work all throughout the vasculature with minimal side effects, and relies on viruses’ own machinations to accomplish the job.
In addition, this technique is extremely unlikely to generate any super-viruses, because in order for a virus to not get trapped, it would have to evolve the ability to not inject itself into things.
I found this article interesting because viruses are difficult to inhibit and kill by nature. This idea is ingenious, in that instead of killing them, it just tricks them into wasting their shot. Little cells roaming around the body attracting viruses is perfect in terms of distribution throughout the body, and reduction of viral spread. Every cell that isn’t hijacked reduces the number of viruses in the body immensely; such a massive positive feedback suffers from every single reduction, and these protocells appear to be capable of absorbing hundreds of viruses apiece. That it relies on a viral mechanism vital to viruses’ efficacy makes it even better, as the likelihood of the treatment becoming ineffectual is almost zero; the method only selects for non-infecting viruses. For an apropos analogy, see http://xkcd.com/810/.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/nios-uac030211.php
posted by Brian Moore at 8:55 PM
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