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When YouTube user Brent Askwith saw a freakishly large worm slither out of a spider he had just killed, he recorded the ghoulish event and appropriately named the video "WTF IS THIS?!?"
"I was just editing my latest montage and this huge spider came out, so I sprayed it and killed it, then this fricken alien worm came out," Askwith wrote in the video's description.
That "alien worm" is actually a parasitic nematode, also known as a roundworm. While the nematode in the YouTube video is larger than most, Harvard University entomologist Dr. Brian Farrell told The Huffington Post that every human is infested with thousands of tiny nematodes.
"Most have no obvious effect on us, and we are mostly unaware of their presence," he wrote in an e-mail, "but a few are large enough to cause diseases such as trichinosis."
In addition to looking strange, nematode parasites can cause their hosts to do strange things. Dr. Farrell gave the example of some nematodes that prey on ants -- the parasite makes its host climb a tree and wave its butt in the air in order to catch the eye of a bird. The bird then nabs the ant, allowing the parasite to escape through the ant's abdomen and spread to other potential hosts.
"My personal favorite is Toxoplasma gondii," Dr. Farrell wrote, "the protozoan that infects cats (and is the reason pregnant women should not be around cats). Toxoplasma also infects rats and makes them unafraid of cats, so they get eaten and the parasites are able to then infect the cats they desire. Weird." [Reply]
When YouTube user Brent Askwith saw a freakishly large worm slither out of a spider he had just killed, he recorded the ghoulish event and appropriately named the video "WTF IS THIS?!?"
"I was just editing my latest montage and this huge spider came out, so I sprayed it and killed it, then this fricken alien worm came out," Askwith wrote in the video's description.
That "alien worm" is actually a parasitic nematode, also known as a roundworm. While the nematode in the YouTube video is larger than most, Harvard University entomologist Dr. Brian Farrell told The Huffington Post that every human is infested with thousands of tiny nematodes.
"Most have no obvious effect on us, and we are mostly unaware of their presence," he wrote in an e-mail, "but a few are large enough to cause diseases such as trichinosis."
In addition to looking strange, nematode parasites can cause their hosts to do strange things. Dr. Farrell gave the example of some nematodes that prey on ants -- the parasite makes its host climb a tree and wave its butt in the air in order to catch the eye of a bird. The bird then nabs the ant, allowing the parasite to escape through the ant's abdomen and spread to other potential hosts.
"My personal favorite is Toxoplasma gondii," Dr. Farrell wrote, "the protozoan that infects cats (and is the reason pregnant women should not be around cats). Toxoplasma also infects rats and makes them unafraid of cats, so they get eaten and the parasites are able to then infect the cats they desire. Weird."
This is not related to our flame war from earlier, but seriously -fuck you. [Reply]
Associate Professor David Harrich says they have discovered how to modify a protein in HIV so that, instead of replicating, it protects against the infection.
"I consider that this is fighting fire with fire," he said.
"What we've actually done is taken a normal virus protein that the virus needs to grow, and we've changed this protein, so that instead of assisting the virus, it actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly."
"This therapy is potentially a cure for AIDS," he said.
"So it's not a cure for HIV infection, but it potentially could end the disease.
"So this protein present in immune cells would help to maintain a healthy immune system so patients can handle normal infections."
More than 30,000 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Australia.
If clinical trials are successful, one treatment could be effective enough to replace the multiple therapies they currently need.
"Drug therapy targets individual enzymes or proteins and they have one drug, one protein," Associate Professor Harrich said.
"They have to take two or three drugs, so this would be a single agent that essentially has the same effect.
"So in that respect, this is a world-first agent that's able to stop HIV with a single agent at multiple steps of the virus lifecycle."
He says the new treatment has the potential to make big improvements in the quality of life for those carrying HIV.
"I think what people are looking for is basically a means to go on and live happy and productive lives with as little intrusion as possible," he said.
"You either have to eliminate the virus infection or alternatively you have to eliminate the disease process and that's what this could do, potentially for a very long time."
Professor Harrich says animal trials are due to start this year and early indications are positive.
"This particular study is going to have some hurdles to jump through, but so far every test that we have put this protein through has passed with flying colours," he said.
"This particular year we're moving this into animal models, and based on the preliminary data we have done we expect that this will proceed really quickly."
The research is published in the journal Human Gene Therapy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
The big corporations are going to swoop in there and shut this thing down faster than you can say "gay butt sex" /bump
Why would you say that? Corporations certainly have too much power these days, but they don't have the power or scope to completely prevent a cure from being released. Especially for something global like AIDS. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
Why would you say that? Corporations certainly have too much power these days, but they don't have the power or scope to completely prevent a cure from being released. Especially for something global like AIDS.
What about cancer? They have been doing that since the 50s. [Reply]
Originally Posted by bevischief:
What about cancer? They have been doing that since the 50s.
That seems to be a popular belief. But there's really not much truth to it. Cancer is being worked on by thousands upon thousands of independent researchers and scientists every day. And again, the power and scope of control necessary to keep something like that under wraps is just not possible.
And keep in mind that cancer cannot be cured by any universal magic bullet solution. It's far from being that simple. Cancer is actually composed of about 200+ different degenerative diseases. Each cell in your body can produce a different form of cancer. And each one acts and reacts in different ways. So something that would be effective against colon cancer could be completely ineffective against lung cancer. I really doubt that there will ever be something seen as a "Cure" for cancer, until we have nanotechnology available that can regulate any and all cell degeneration. But really once we reach that point, we're going to see all sorts of current human ailments disappear and see average life spans shoot up several hundred years at the least. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
That seems to be a popular belief. But there's really not much truth to it. Cancer is being worked on by thousands upon thousands of independent researchers and scientists every day. And again, the power and scope of control necessary to keep something like that under wraps is just not possible.
And keep in mind that cancer cannot be cured by any universal magic bullet solution. It's far from being that simple. Cancer is actually composed of about 200+ different degenerative diseases. Each cell in your body can produce a different form of cancer. And each one acts and reacts in different ways. So something that would be effective against colon cancer could be completely ineffective against lung cancer. I really doubt that there will ever be something seen as a "Cure" for cancer, until we have nanotechnology available that can regulate any and all cell degeneration. But really once we reach that point, we're going to see all sorts of current human ailments disappear and see average life spans shoot up several hundred years at the least.
Cancer is to difficult an animal to tackle for a magic bullet. Best I've heard about it is the ability to train and attack the cancer you have so if it comes back later in your life that particular kind of cancer will be a non-issue [Reply]
Cancer is a virus and ever time you get a vaccine you get another dose of cancer causing viruses and foreign DNA in your body that your body attacks. Why has cancer seen over 1000 fold increase since the 1950s when vaccination become wide spread? Every researcher that has figured this out has been forced out and shunned and had their research and funding removed from them. Cancer has become the drug makers cash cow. Go do your own research there. Go ask any medical doctor and if they would take chemo I have asked several myself and so far I have yet to find one that will. [Reply]
Originally Posted by bevischief:
Cancer is a virus and ever time you get a vaccine you get another dose of cancer causing viruses and foreign DNA in your body that your body attacks. Why has cancer seen over 1000 fold increase since the 1950s when vaccination become wide spread? Every researcher that has figured this out has been forced out and shunned and had their research and funding removed from them. Cancer has become the drug makers cash cow. Go do your own research there. Go ask any medical doctor and if they would take chemo I have asked several myself and so far I have yet to find one that will.
Cancer incidence has gone up due to the ability to fight other diseases more effectively. Not as many people dying of heart disease = more cancer as it has the time to develop. Plus massively unhealthy lifestyles from recreational drugs and diet has a far greater impact. [Reply]
Originally Posted by bevischief:
Cancer is a virus and ever time you get a vaccine you get another dose of cancer causing viruses and foreign DNA in your body that your body attacks. Why has cancer seen over 1000 fold increase since the 1950s when vaccination become wide spread? Every researcher that has figured this out has been forced out and shunned and had their research and funding removed from them. Cancer has become the drug makers cash cow. Go do your own research there. Go ask any medical doctor and if they would take chemo I have asked several myself and so far I have yet to find one that will.
Come on now. Cancer is not a virus. That goes completely against how cancer works and how viruses work. Viruses are actual "Living" particles that attach to normal cells, and introduce their own genetic instructions to the cell to make it do what it wants the cell to do. Viruses reprogram the cells to make more cells with the altered genetic code of the virus. Cancer is very different in that it's a deformation in an otherwise normal cell's own structural DNA. Cancer doesn't change the cell to do something different, it simply halts what the cell should normally be doing. In addition, it prevents the cell from dying and being replaced by new cells. The mutated cells remain and clump together to form a tumor that the body can't naturally deal with. There's a huge difference.
You don't get cancer from vaccines. You are completely wrong about that. The increase in cancer incidents can be attributed to the increase in knowledge of the field and better diagnoses of cause of death. Before the 50s, many people died inexplicably without a cause of death being identified. No differently than the increase of cancer in animals. How many people do you know who've had a dog get cancer? How prevalent do you think that was before the 50s?
And I personally know a doctor that's undergoing chemo right now. Certainly do your own research. But make sure you're researching correctly, because there's tons of misinformation and straight up bullshit out there about the subject. [Reply]
