Venom and hot peppers offer a key to killing resistant bacteria
wired.com
wired.com
We’ve come full circle
https://radiolab.org/podcast/interstitium
They also did an episode about rapamycin that I thought was really cool. I had no idea the history of it and found it fascinating and it really gets the imagination going thinking about what other things are hidden all around us.
> Like traditional acupuncture, electroacupuncture uses needles placed in the same spots. Then, a small electrode is attached to the needles. A small amount of electricity runs through the electrode and gives a slight vibration or soft hum during treatment. (1)
Since they use the same spots as traditional acupuncture even now, I would think traditional acupuncture does work to some degree.
(1) https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/cbd-cbn-what-is-differ...
It's just relying on poking stuff with needles to improve the blood flow.
If you want to read old texts a bit more grounded in reality try the Kama Sutra ... ;)
1. The Tel Dan Stele and the House of David
This 9th-century BCE inscription records an Aramean king’s victories over the “king of Israel” and the “king of the House of David.” It gives the earliest extra-biblical proof of the Davidic dynasty at the heart of the Hebrew Bible.
2. Sennacherib’s Prism and Hezekiah
The prism names “Hezekiah the Judahite,” details the capture of 46 cities, and describes besieging Jerusalem in 701 BCE, closely matching 2 Kings 18–19, including the tribute paid.
3. The Pilate Stone and Pontius Pilate
Found at Caesarea Maritima, this inscription names “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea” under Tiberius, directly confirming the Roman official who tried Jesus in the Gospels.
These independent sources from rival powers strongly support the Bible’s historical value where evidence exists.
Something developed in a lab is something we, most likely, will never see - and will never know why the thing didn't reach the 2nd stage (or the 1st).
One thing bugs me though - why don't other countries with different research structures pick this up and run with it?
I would think there are pharma teams in China or India, maybe even Russia that could replicate and further develop something like this, given the initial paper and PR.
I mean, the covid vaccinations - people are/were doing their nut about the Euro/US versions, but the Russians had their own, the Chinese had two, and I am aware that the Chinese were handing it out to other countries as part of their aid programs (the effectiveness of those vaccines, however, has been questioned, especially in comparison to the Euro/US ones, but I'm not sure if that's reality or politics, it's so damned hard to tell these days)
Oh yeah, "corporations", "end-stage capitalism", blah blah.
The reality is that 95+% of drug candidates fail the trials. And a lot of them only fail during the Phase-3 where the efficacy is tested. It's likely that large companies tried it in-house and found that it's either too toxic or is ineffective in-vivo.
1. University/startup company finds a promising drug candidate that works in-vitro. They make a press-release, researchers write their theses, and move on.
2. Drug companies pick that up and run small-scale tests. These tests are negative, usually because of unexpected toxicity.
Looking at the molecule in question, it's likely what happened here. It's a covalent inhibitor, meaning that it permanently binds with the protein. It's also allosteric, meaning that it binds to the target enzyme but not at the actual active site. This is a huge red flag for toxicity, because it's likely going to bind to other proteins that can have similar configurations.
3. But the underlying idea is sound, so companies keep working on alternative approaches. They are likely looking for non-covalent compounds now, or for things like "suicide inhibitors".
4. You'll see actual trials in 10-15 years after the initial press-release. Most likely for completely different compounds, targeting the same mechanism.
For the longest time I had been trying to figure out why nobody was taking the research seriously, why there weren't diagnostic kits available that determined which variant people were actually suffering from, and using the appropriate drug regime to manage the specific condition the patient had.
Then, last year I saw a paper being discussed (some 5 - 10 years after the initial paper), and it was building on the Washington research - it appears to me now (keeping in mind that I am a layman and an outsider) that the research /had/ been taken seriously, but it's seen as a signpost on the pathway rather than the destination.
https://www.cremieux.xyz/p/the-rise-and-impending-fall-of-th...
The patents expired, so nobody can raise the hundreds of millions to do the phase II/III safety trials.
Granted, it's not going to be easy because the original patent has expired so it's going to be very easy for an upstart Indian company to conduct basic clinical trials, use part of the data of the second patent's holder to prove equivalency (they did this test so we don't need to do this test), and then get approved through an accelerated pathway in the FDA. Which is why even well-capitalized players will shy away from what could be a cash cow.
This one is quite tinfoil-hat inspiring, as the research was moved to defense-focused Draper Labs and then immediately disappeared.
And particularly if you are introducing a vulnerability instead of directly attacking the bacteria with the phage, there is no evolutionary pressure to become resistant until the phage has already done its job. You can even go further and have it insert genes that confer an advantage in addition to the susceptibility, so that even if some of the bacteria are by chance naturally resistant to the phage they get outcompeted prior to the deployment of the killing agent.
H Pylori is a very interesting subject, deeply misunderstood until a certain Australian hero brute forced through the arrogance of the day by infecting himself to prove ulcers weren't the product of psychosomatics.
Ending the rant there, I discovered through research that capsaicin (only one of the virtues of peppers) has a manifold effect upon various bacteria, notably pylori. Aside from encouraging the pylori to swim away from the capsaicin, it disrupts their biofilm behavior, and empirically, can drastically help with ulcers counter to expected problems with its spicy nature.
Adjacently, it can also encourage mucosal stimulation and protection.
I've found, co administered with mastic, oregano, NAC, and a few things presently inaccessible to the ol' cabbage.... Ahh, that's one... Cabbage juice! -- the infection can be reduced to sustainable levels without conventional antibiotics. Modern research is suggesting that h pylori, partly due to its ubiquity (50% of population +) and the ravages of antibiotics, it may be best to simply reduce it to manageable levels where the immune system and general well being keep it controlled.
There is also the wonder of fermented chilies which is good for many things, includes probiotics, improves most meals and really irritates assholes, which is righteous.
Can't describe it exactly, but it's like being transported to another dimension for a few seconds, then there is pain, then there is relief and then a nice warm feeling in the belly.
If it hurts while just sitting in your gut that's probably a red flag that something about your digestive system is off.
I'm not sure why this is the case, but I'll go to a place with some Habanero sauce and get that on a meal. It will hurt (and my time in the bathroom the next day might be a little unpleasant), but it satisfies the urge.
So yeah no more peppers without rice for me.
Hats off, not only were they able to isolate just two molecules, but also established that they were colorless.
I don't think this is a usual definition for benzoquinones:
"heterocyclic compounds that do not contain amino acids".
I can smell Sam Altman's socks reading this article.
...and then dozen of words further on:
"blue benzoquinone has the capacity to act against the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, while the red one is effective against Staphylococcus aureus."
How quaint! Blue colorless molecule is different from the red colorless molecule!
> These molecules have a particular property: When they come into contact with air, they oxidize and change color. One becomes blue and the other red.
Maybe I shouldn't. But then I have to deep-dive into yet another flagrant cheap hallucination. You see, when a molecule oxidize, it becomes a different molecule.
It is impossible for a benzoquinone to oxidize, yet remain a benzoquinone. There are just two of them [1], and the two are isomers [2]. Transforming one into another would be isomerisation, not oxidation.
Not to mention — "oxidize on contact with air" is such a pile of nonsense. Just look at those things: benzene ring with a couple of oxygens sticking from it. [1] That stuff is pretty darn stable in presence of atmospheric oxygen.