The discussion centers on the potential for genetically engineered bacteria or nanotechnology to provide a cure for Ebola. Participants explore the feasibility of these approaches, existing treatments, and the challenges involved in developing effective therapies.
Participants express a range of views on the feasibility and complexity of developing a cure for Ebola using bacteria or nanotechnology. There is no consensus on the effectiveness of current treatments or the potential for new therapies, indicating ongoing debate and uncertainty.
Limitations in the discussion include the lack of detailed information on specific mechanisms of action for proposed treatments, the dependence on definitions of "cure," and the unresolved status of many experimental therapies.
Syed Ammar said:If it is then why is no one coming up with a cure?
Syed Ammar said:I was just wondering if some bacteria or nanotechnology could be genetically engineered to target the Ebola strains? Is this possible?
Not sure what you are saying there. There is no "cure" for polio or HIV.Doug Huffman said:Why is not the answer about curing Ebola EVD the same as for polio or HIV ( each of which has many more victims and a much longer time to develop a cure - which is not a vaccine )?
Borek said:I guess others will give a more detailed answer, but basically there are many different viruses which use different techniques when attacking cells/reproducing, so what works against one, doesn't have to work against another.
Doug Huffman said:What ALL viruses have in common is the lack of 'machinery' with which to reproduce. That said, there are only about a dozen virus families, of 5000-ish known, that sicken humans.
Doug Huffman said:What ALL viruses have in common is the lack of 'machinery' with which to reproduce.
Ryan_m_b said:Yes but that's not in of itself a target, there's no real difference between viral mRNA and human mRNA. Instead anti-virals have to target any number of processes that can be very different e.g. anti-retrovirals can target viral reverse transcriptase to prevent DNA formation. This will be useless against adenoviruses. Other targets include entry into the cell and viral genome incorporation amongst others, both of which differ for different species.
Ygggdrasil said:That said, there are some creative ideas for therapies that could act against a broader spectrum of viruses. A simple example is interferon treatment which can be helpful against a number of viruses because it helps boost the immune system's antiviral defenses. Some of these antiviral defenses detect viral infection by scanning for long segments of double-stranded RNA which often occur as intermediates in the replication of RNA viruses, but are mostly absent in uninfected cells. Researchers have engineered some of these proteins to create treatments that could potentially target a broad spectrum of RNA viruses (see this previous PF thread for further discussion). Of course, the paper I cite above is a simple proof-of-concept experiment, and it is still unclear whether the treatment would work in humans. Still, it is an intriguing idea.
Oh! Ok :(Borek said:You can be sure they are hard at work. Trick is, it is never as easy as snapping your fingers.