A new family of drugs that has the potential to cure damn near all viral diseases. Penicillin and antibiotics changed the world. Draco has the potential to do the same. It binds the dsRNA viruses use to replicate, and induces apoptosis in the infected cell. It has already proven effective against the common cold, H1N1, Dengue fever, and numerous other viruses. Conceivably, one of these things could cure HIV or any other viral disease you throw it at. So far, it has proven effective on the following:
Rhinovirus 18
Rhinovirus 2
Rhinovirus 14
Rhinovirus 30
Theiler’s Encephelomyelitis
Dengue Fever 2
Influenza H1N1 A/PR/8/34
Influenza H1N1 A/WS/33
Tacaribe
Amapari
Guama Be An 277
Guama Be Ar 12590
Reovirus 3
Adenovirus 5
Murine Adenovirus
That’s just what they’ve tested so far. Keep in mind, this is NOT a vaccine (though it can be used as such). Unlike a vaccine, a DRACO will take out a disease even after infection. It’s a damn cure for the common cold - and other viral diseases that are far far worse. Can you say “Holy Fucking Shit!”.
Now, it’s still in early stages, but the potential is there for it to change the face of medicine as we know it. It could be a breakthrough on par with the discovery of penicillin.
It’s too early to start handing out Nobel Prizes, but damn this could be huge.
Yeah, lots and lots of things kill viruses in vitro. It gets messy when you’re talking about a living organism’s biochemistry, though. I hope there’s something to it, though.
I know the pace of drug testing and approvals can be tedious, slow and expensive… how long would it take for something like this to start being tested in human trials?
10 - 15 years probably. There is still a lot of research to be done. Here’s a Newsweek article I just found on DRACO that says “about a decade”. It’s a decent article that explains DRACO in less techical terms than the paper I linked to.
It could have been on the market long before now, but they took a lot of time thinking up a cool acronym for it. I mean, it’s not like anyone will want to take, say, Joe’s Antiviral Drug. You need to have a name that’ll look good on billboards.
I don’t mean to be cynical, just cautious. I go to presentations every month that use the same wording. “We’ve done trials in vitro and in vivo! It works! We’re gonna be rich!” Only it never seems to work out that way. They get bogged down in reproducibility, or the statistics are slightly more problematic than they at first let on. Something. Seriously. At least once a month. I remember V520 going to Phase 2 trials, and another (although the name escapes me now) going to Phase 3 trials. Both had huge promise as an AIDS vaccine. Both were initially shown to work in vitro and in vivo in model organisms. Both ended up failing.
Viruses are tough nuts to crack. I’m always hopeful when I hear stuff like this, but very, very, very cautious.
And even if it’s the greatest thing since moldy bread, doctors will give it to whiny morons for the common cold, and resistance will show up within a year or two.
Holy flurking schmidt. This looks like it’d work. Even if this specific formulation fails, the concept certainly looks like it’d be worth more testing. It’d be great for NBC issues.
And umlaut, it’s effective against rhinoviruses. That is the common cold.
Of course. But he’s arguing that, like antibiotics, they will be prescribed when the body could deal with the disease on its own, and eventually, viruses will develop resistance from such overuse.
Seeing as viruses mutate more quickly than even bacteria, this is a possible outcome. If there are non dsRNA viruses, or a way to get around it, it’s almost certain to happen, to some extent.
I took this to mean that the moron in question will not take the drug according to directions, and will also stop taking the drug as soon as said moron “feels better” instead of taking the entire prescribed amount, thus leaving some of the nasty little buggers around to develop resistance
we are borg. resistance is futile, unless you are a microbe…sorry, couldn’t resist
