io9
As we all learned from watching I Am Legend, scientists are now using virus shells (the hard and pointy outside of a virus that you see here) to deliver gene-tinkering drugs to your body as swiftly as possible. Virus shells are the perfect delivery system because the little bugs are designed to latch onto your cells and inject stuff into them. Bad viruses deliver genome-disturbing disease; good ones can deliver life-saving drugs. Now a rabies virus shell is being used to deliver tumor-destroying drugs to the brain.
In the case of this new study, published recently in Nature, scientists were able to deliver tiny snippets of RNA to brain cells that "interfered" with genes that were malfunctioning and forming tumors. Virus shell drug delivery is particularly cool because the shells can go beyond the blood-brain barrier right into the cell. Most conventional drugs rely on blood vessels to get to the right spot, which is a problem if you're trying to reach an area that isn't easily accessed by blood vessels, or is only served by extremely tiny ones that may not be big enough to admit drug molecules.
Using rabies to deliver drugs to the brain [BoingBoing]
Comments
It's like "Rant" only with less incest fueled time travel and more actual science.
I'm sorry, but that thing looks like my grandma knit it on a slow Sunday morning.
For some strange reason I feel an urge to play katamari.
You have to pick all those furry Cheerios off it first...
D20 Virus FTW!
Error: Norton Anti-Brain Virus 2011 failed to run.
Why does this concept chill me to the bone? Scientists work with the law of averages. If somthing works 99.999% of the time, then it must be true. When dealing with trillions of miniature viral drug dispensers, that .001 margin of error becomes a rather large number if evil Virii.
@FrankenPC: These viruses have no ability whatsoever to cause a disease state. Their normal genetic material is replaced with RNA that is designed solely to interfere with the processes that allow normal cells to escape the constraints of the cell cycle and develop into tumors. And what's really exciting is that the use of viruses allows for a treatment that is exclusively targeted to tumor cells, whereas conventional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation inevitably damage normal cells in surrounding tissue.
@screaming numbers: Exactly. Thank you.
...5...4...3...2...1...
My wife has the Rabies Vaccine for school, so I wonder if she'd reject the treatment...
@screaming numbers: This all sounds great until we all turn into badly-rendered greyish proto-zombie/vampires
Uh, this was how the rage virus was created in 28 Days Later, if memory serves.
@screaming numbers:
The best intentions of mice and men. Anyone who speaks of science with absolute confidence is living in fantasy land. Failures ALWAYS occur within the domain of any given scientific breakthrough. Trying to be like NASA and attempting to see all failure modes before they happen is impossible.
Appolo 13.
Hell, failures have given us some of the best SciFi material we have ever read!
Patton Oswalt comes to mind: "We made cancer airborne and contagious. You're welcome! We're science!"
@FrankenPC: The basics of what you're saying is true, that there is a possibility of failure in any endeavor. However you're jumping to conlcusions when you describe the failure you warn of. Should failure in the process occur, it would most likely not result in some highly predatory new virus, merely a virus that failed to do the constructive task it was assigned.
Speaking of science with absolute certainty is indeed ill-advised... but speaking against science with the threat of an infintisimally unlikely (not to mention creative) outcome is somewhat foolish. Particularly when the new technique shows promise like this.
@Corwin:
Well said. In any other venue I would be lauding this discovery. But, this is io9. So, BRING ON THE ZOMBIE BEASTS FROM HELL!!!!
@FrankenPC: If it weren't for science gone wrong, we wouldn't have science fiction. You're right - we have to hurry. Get the ice nine.
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