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Pink Elephant
http://www.physorg.com/news108141136.html

So they figured out how to break up viral particles in solution by firing a laser at them. And they claim this will allow them to disinfect blood. But what about those infected blood cells, that host active viral RNA inside of them, churning out new viral particles all the time?!

Spare me this kind of "disinfection", and shame on the reporters who wrote up this useless hype piece!
ez ezz
Yeah, the transfusion things strikes me as fairly useless.

But, what if we can filter peoples blood and give it back to them? Say you've got HIV, just go in once a week, sit down, and have your blood cycled, with all the HIV viruses getting pummeled. Shouldn't be incredibly expensive, and would probably be indefinitely effective.
P. Suresh
Date: Sep 5, 2007

Let this success qualify further scientific tests, proliferate and take different forms etc so that more applications that are needed by one and all in society can be enabled.

Thank You,

P. Suresh
Pink Elephant
QUOTE (ez ezz+Sep 5 2007, 03:03 AM)
Yeah, the transfusion things strikes me as fairly useless.

But, what if we can filter peoples blood and give it back to them? Say you've got HIV, just go in once a week, sit down, and have your blood cycled, with all the HIV viruses getting pummeled. Shouldn't be incredibly expensive, and would probably be indefinitely effective.

Hm, I didn't consider the particular case of HIV. I suppose in that instance, what you propose might actually work! smile.gif

Though of course, cycling your blood through some machine once every few days, is in itself dangerous: you're risking infection and contamination. Constructing and properly operating such a machine in a clinical environment is probably also pretty expensive. It's not that different from dialysis, and that's not exactly a walk in the park...
LeTUOtter
QUOTE (Pink Elephant+Sep 5 2007, 03:57 PM)
Though of course, cycling your blood through some machine once every few days, is in itself dangerous: you're risking infection and contamination. Constructing and properly operating such a machine in a clinical environment is probably also pretty expensive. It's not that different from dialysis, and that's not exactly a walk in the park...

As far as cleanliness issues go, I wouldn't worry about that. Clean is what hospitals DO. biggrin.gif And I don't think this would be handled quite like dialysis. That's an outpatient procedure, anyone can do that, but treatment like this would likely be overseen by the hospital itself.
There's gotta be an easier way to break up cancer and viruses than with lasers. I mean, that laser's gotta go through me to get to the virus, right? ph34r.gif
adoucette
QUOTE (Pink Elephant+Sep 4 2007, 05:44 PM)
http://www.physorg.com/news108141136.html

So they figured out how to break up viral particles in solution by firing a laser at them. And they claim this will allow them to disinfect blood. But what about those infected blood cells, that host active viral RNA inside of them, churning out new viral particles all the time?!

Spare me this kind of "disinfection", and shame on the reporters who wrote up this useless hype piece!

This achievement has to do with cleaning blood that is to be transfused.

QUOTE
The technique, which holds promise for disinfecting blood for transfusions,


Because

QUOTE (->
QUOTE
The technique, which holds promise for disinfecting blood for transfusions,


Because

current techniques using UV irradiation and radioisotopes can leave a trail of mutated or damaged blood components.


Arthur


Pink Elephant
Yeah, except they're talking about removing blood-borne viruses from the blood. Question: how can you destroy blood-borne viruses, without also destroying the blood cells that host those viruses? Whether it's laser, UV, or radioisotopes: if the blood cells survive, so will the viruses inside them!

The only viruses their technique can destroy, are those in the plasma (i.e. outside the cell), and the only reason their technique even works (according to them) is that it disrupts the protein envelope around the viral particle. Well, viruses sitting inside blood cells wouldn't care if their protein envelope is disrupted; they'll have it reconstituted by the host cell!

The whole notion of removing viruses from blood is therefore bonkers. It's one thing to try and kill any bacteria that might be present in the blood; but viruses? blink.gif Good luck....
NeoNo.1
Yeh... scientists have far too much time on their hands... It's pathetic.
Bryan
Closed-minded gazelle, the majority of you are. So, perhaps using this method to "clean" blood may be a far-fetched proposition. How about other uses for it. Drinking water? I cant tell you how many damn countries would love some virus-free drinking water. Without using chemicals? I'll put stock in that. I wonder how we might be able to use this in a lab, perhaps? Biomedical research. How about we look at other possible uses for this novel method, rather than bashing the one that the reporter chose to emphazise......just wishing for a little more open-mindedness on this SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY website, as opposed to the pessimism from what the reporter spoon-fed you. Think outside the box.
Guest_kena
Here's a proposal; what if a walk-in machine were built which surrounds the person (simliar to the "standing" MRI machine some hospitals use) in an array of lasers. I envision something like a line of lasers fixed in concentric, rotating circles surrounding the walls of the machine, which spin and fire simultainiously. The treatment could last about 4 mins and be painless. If done for a couple of weeks I think it could work. What do you guys/girls think?
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