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Biotech / Medical : NNVC - NanoViricides, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: donpat who wrote (1976)	8/10/2011 11:00:42 AM
From: Savant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12873

Sounds very promising...could obivate the need for NNVC's work? Best, S.

To: donpat who wrote (1976)	8/10/2011 5:15:14 PM
From: donpat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12873

So far, the treatment appears safe and non-toxic, and fairly effective when used pre-infection, and in the early stages of infection, for the viruses tested. Whether this general approach will lead to successful treatments for herpes viruses or HIV and other retroviruses, remains to be studied. Since DRACO leads to the death of viral-infected cells, the potential exists that this approach might lead to eradication of "stealth viruses" which hide in particular cell types for a person's entire lifetime. As for other stealth viruses living inside human cells which have not been discovered by human science, presumably some of these would also be killed by a DRACO-like approach. No one knows what the result of such a broad-spectrum clearance of body viruses might be, because no one knows what these undiscovered stealth viruses are doing in the first place. Assuming they are there, which is quite probable, according to Al Fin system biologists. http://www.alfin2100.blogspot.com/

To: donpat who wrote (1976)	8/12/2011 9:40:34 AM
From: donpat	Respond to of 12873

Based on these encouraging initial animal trials, future work should be done to test and optimize antiviral efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and absence of toxicity in vitro and in vivo. Future experiments can further characterize and optimize dsRNA binding, apoptosis induction, cellular transduction, and other DRACO properties. More extensive trials are also needed to determine how long after infection DRACOs can be used successfully, or if DRACOs are useful against chronic viral infections without producing unacceptable levels of cell death in vivo. DRACOs should be effective against numerous clinical and NIAID priority viruses, due to the broad-spectrum sensitivity of the dsRNA detection domain, the potent activity of the apoptosis induction domain, and the novel direct linkage between the two which viruses have never encountered. We have demonstrated that DRACOs are effective against viruses with DNA, dsRNA, positive-sense ssRNA, and negative-sense ssRNA genomes; enveloped and non-enveloped viruses; viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm and viruses that replicate in the nucleus; human, bat, and rodent viruses; and viruses that use a variety of cellular receptors ( Table 1). plosone.org

To: donpat who wrote (1976)	8/12/2011 8:08:54 PM
From: donpat	Respond to of 12873

In re infected cells dying from the viral attack AND from DRACO's action: New Wonder Drug Kills Almost Any Virus Earnest "Nex" Cavalli \| 12 Aug 2011 19:01 Researchers at MIT have unveiled a clever new treatment plan that they say can neutralize almost any viral infection. They call it "Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer" (or DRACO if you're into brevity and awesome acronyms), and effectively it functions in much the same way as a firebreak. Whereas firefighters remove swaths of vegetation in front of a forest fire to deprive it of fuel, DRACO effectively targets and kills those human cells that have become hosts for the invading virus, forcing the aberration to burn itself out. PopSci offers a less metaphorical explanation: Viruses work by inserting themselves into a cell and hijacking its machinery for its own use. The invaded cell then creates more copies of the virus, which involves creating long strings of double-stranded RNA - which contains the virus' genetic material, like DNA contains ours. When the virus is done copying itself, its hostage cell usually dies, from the virus bursting through its walls (lysis), changes to the cell's outer membrane, and from apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Human cells have plenty of defenses against viral invasion, including proteins that attach to the double-stranded RNA, preventing the virus from replicating itself after successful invasion. This new drug therapy combines those dsRNA proteins with a protein that induces apoptosis. It's called a DRACO, Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer. When one end of the DRACO binds to dsRNA, it signals the other end of the DRACO to induce cell suicide, an MIT News article explains. In this way, the cell is killed before the virus can take over and eventually kill it anyway. If there is no dsRNA, the healthy cells are left alone. The neat bit is that DRACO should, in theory, work on almost any virus, as instead of attacking the virus directly (as conventional treatments would), it instead targets the viral "food supply." This concept is not exactly novel however. There are already drugs on the market that do much the same thing as DRACO, though they largely are only effective against a single virus, or at best, a handful of similar viruses. The big advantage of DRACO is that so far, it seems to function on such a fundamental level that it has proven effective against nearly the entire swath of known viral agents. As with all such breakthroughs, we are still a few years of intensive testing away from seeing DRACO in widespread public use, though the potential here is simply mind-boggling. If proven viable, DRACO could quite literally be the fabled "cure for the common cold." Source: PopSci escapistmagazine.com

To: donpat who wrote (1976)	8/12/2011 10:06:20 PM
From: donpat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12873

Drug May Cure Any Viral Infection The State Column \| Staff \| Friday, August 12, 2011 A team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim to have developed a drug that can cure everything, from common colds to HIV and almost everything in between. They call the drug DRACO, for short. DRACO is designed to recognize infected cells and make them self-destruct. In doing so, it has proven to be effective against human rhinoviruses, flu, polio, and dengue fever. Rhinoviruses are viruses that cause most of the common colds in adults and children and the stomach bug. Also, there have been reports of drug showing signs of success against German measles, cold sores, rabies, and potentially HIV. Continued experiments are needed for confirmation, but we could potentially see this drug hit the shelves as early as a decade. DRACO is designed to recognize infected cells and make them self-destruct. In doing so, it has proven to be effective against human rhinoviruses, flu, polio, and dengue fever. Rhinoviruses are viruses that cause most of the common colds in adults and children and the stomach bug. From the Money Control, the lead researcher Mike Rider (sic Todd Rider) said, “It’s certainly possible that there’s some virus that we aren’t able to treat but we haven’t found it yet.” It is hoped that this drug will be equivalent of antibodies against bacterial infections, but instead against viral infections. At the moment, there are not too many anti-viral treatments, so this represents a potential great step forward in medical treatments. In the lab, DRACO has been shown to kill 15 different viruses, and have helped mice survive, after being injected with a dose of the flu that should have killed them. During a viral infection, the virus invades the human cell and begins to replicate its DNA or RNA for replication. To fight this invasion, the body naturally produces proteins to hinder and stop this replication from occurring. Thus the researchers combined a protein that binds to the RNA with another that triggers cell death. Thus the treatment only targets the infected cells and leaves the healthy cells alone. Potentially, this drug could be taken before symptoms appear, thus eliminating any feelings of fatigue or other symptoms. It could prevent people from ever feeling sick. In essence this new drug could be the new penicillin of this century. This study was published in journal PLoS One. thestatecolumn.com

To: donpat who wrote (1976)	8/13/2011 2:18:48 PM
From: donpat	Respond to of 12873

Draco’s magic spells death for viruses Sanchita Sharma, Hindustan Times August 13, 2011 It’s being called the greatest discovery since penicillin, a Light Sabre-like experimental drug that destroys all viruses that infect and kill. If it indeed works half as well as expected, this drug could abort killer infections — such as HIV that causes AIDS, influenza, dengue, polio, jaundice, measles, rabies, among others — before they get a chance to wreck havoc inside the body. In theory, the drug — double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) activated caspase oligomeriser, with the rather cool acronym of DRACO — homes in on cells infected with viruses of all types and makes them self-destruct. In lab tests on rats, DRACO killed 15 viruses. And it did so without harming healthy cells around them. Apart from shielding against viruses that raise fears of bioterrorism, such as Ebola and smallpox, DRACO would help stop most emerging epidemics, which are almost always viral in origin, be it the Spanish Flu of 1917 that killed 20 million people within a year, to H1N1 (swine flu) of 2009 that cost the world many more millions to contain. These infections quickly spiral out of control because of a virus’ quicksilver ability to mutate and evade existing drugs with ease. This forces pharmaceutical companies to introduce different drugs and vaccines each year that work against that one specific virus, virus strain or family that is causing infection that year. For the past five decades, the standard treatment has been to use preventive vaccines, and, if that fails, then using prescription drugs to treat the infection caused by a specific virus, such as oseltamivir and zanamivir to treat H1N1 (swine flu). The new drug DRACO targets a molecule common to all virus-infected cells. Nearly every virus generates strings of double-stranded RNA longer than 30 base pairs to duplicate itself and take control of the host cell. The immune arsenal within human cells includes a protein that exploits this viral characteristic. Todd Rider of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory in the US made the drug by combining this protein with another from the immune system. When a sentinel enzyme called protein kinase R (PKR) finds double-stranded RNA longer than 23 base pairs inside a cell, it binds to the RNA, blocks the production of viral proteins and activates the cell’s defences. Most viruses can evade PKR. So Rider and his team attached PKR to a protein called apoptotic protease activating factor 1 (APAF-1), which releases destructive enzymes to trigger cell suicide before the virus takes over. Even if virus fragments escape the destroyed cell, they do so minus the protein cover needed to help them travel between cells, which keeps the surrounding healthy tissue free of infection. There are some challenges, such as DRACO being too large a protein to enter cells with ease. Also, the way the drug functions would make it effective only in very early stages of infection. In advanced viral infections, destroying all infected cells could lead to organ failure, as may happen if the infected cells are the hepatocyte cells in the liver. In children, people over 65 years and those with compromised immunities — such as people with HIV or liver disease -- the generalised weakness induced by mass cell death could heighten sickness and cause death. The drug would also not work against viruses have evolved ways to conceal their double-stranded RNA. It’s way too early to uncork the bubbly, but DRACO’s the closest the world’s got to a blueprint of a medical nuke to obliterate viruses, which killed far more people in the last century than the two world wars. It’s effectiveness can only be tested over time because viruses, like bacteria, have a way of staying a step ahead of new and newer prescription medication. hindustantimes.com