Polio virus is a good thing!

[Rockstar]

Some amazing things are happening in cancer research these days. Heard this treatment has also met with success against other forms of cancer too!

http://www.cancer.duke.edu/btc/modules/Research3/index.php?id=41

[Onkel Neal]

I saw that on 60 minutes (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/polio-cancer-treatment-duke-university-60-minutes-scott-pelley/). Fascinating. Is there really a silver bullet cure for cancer in the works? it appears so.

If so, this gentleman should be on the dollar bill
http://www.polio.pitt.edu/speakers/images/Gromeier-portrait.jpg
Dr. Matthias Gromeier

[Rockstar]

I saw it on 60 minutes too. i remember when my wife was going through treatment and how hard it was on her body. When the doctor told her he expected to see something like this within twenty years neither of us could believe it. Treatment then seemed so barbaric and behind the times we thought surely it would take a lot more than it did to come up with something like this. This more promising than anything we could have imagined back then, if its not the silver bullet I got a feeling now its going to lead to one sooner rather than later.

[Onkel Neal]

It's worth noting that the "Polio" term is a little misleading, it's actually a modified polio virus, so it cannot be the polio that damages the human body.

[Betonov]

As long as the virus is programed not to reproduce, this method is safe and sound.
Better to have frequent injections than let the virus reproduce. Not dangerous on it's own, but a random mutation might make the strain a bigger threat than cure.

[Rockstar]

As long as the virus is programed not to reproduce, this method is safe and sound.
Better to have frequent injections than let the virus reproduce. Not dangerous on it's own, but a random mutation might make the strain a bigger threat than cure.


And aliens might take over the world. :O:

[Betonov]

And aliens might take over the world. :O:

I'm not kidding.
The same reason viruses are so easy to programe is the same why they can turn on you. They're simple with a small genome and the simpler they are, the faster they can mutate. A few hundred generations can rotate within days and if one mutates to attack healthy cells you have a biohazard and a dead patient,

As long as they can't reproduce they're safe. Mutations only happen when they reproduce.

[Rockstar]

I trust the brains behind the science to be responsible and intelligent enough to recognize and prevent deadly mutations from interfering with their research. I just cant picture them waking up one day and saying "whoa! I didnt see that one coming." :D


but you're right and you never know.

[Gargamel]

It actually does reproduce, that's how it works. They've removed the polio part, and inserted common cold part instead. The particular cancer they are targeting has a specific receptor on its cells, and the virus attaches and inserts itself there. The immune system then kicks in and attacks the infected cells.

Sad thing is, some big-pharma has it's fingers this probably, and it will be overpriced for many years, and our wonderful money driven health system will rule it experimental and not offer coverage. It'll be 20 years before the patents expire, and cost effective alternatives arise. Too late for too many.

[Betonov]

I see.
The immune system destroys the cell before it can reproduce the virus inside.
Smart.

[Onkel Neal]

I trust the brains behind the science to be responsible and intelligent enough to recognize and prevent deadly mutations from interfering with their research. I just cant picture them waking up one day and saying "whoa! I didnt see that one coming." :D

.

Oh, I can. :) I just hope that doesn't happen.

More on this story
http://www.healthnewsreview.org/2015/03/more-than-half-of-60-minutes-devoted-to-killing-cancer/

and

http://www.forbes.com/sites/arleneweintraub/2015/03/30/heres-what-60-minutes-didnt-tell-you-about-the-miracle-glioblastoma-treatment/

The idea of using viruses as weapons against cancer isn’t new. It actually dates back to the late 1800s, when physicians treating cancer patients started reporting miraculous remissions in patients who came down with the flu or some other virus. By the 1950s, scientists understood that some viruses have a unique ability to invade just about any cell in the body and kill it. But turning that ability into cancer treatments was challenging: Either the virus-based drugs were too weak to wage effective attacks against tumors, or they were so powerful they prompted dangerous immune responses in patients. (That actually happened to one of the patients in the Duke trial, as 60 Minutes reported.)