Well was just a concept. Thinking at the level of products that enter every country and in anything could be a modified organism then the chances to find in time the possible threat is less than 1%. Only thing that could stop would be a nanotehnology produced in mass. Or something like a filter put in the blood vens. A simple filter that could eliminate bacteria. Only problem is how could can eliminate bacteria whitout eliminate blood cells? Maibe a filter direct on the lungs or thrahee. Maibe new kind of masks. Maibe a every location a filter that clean air. Maibe a modified bacteria that eat bacteria. Maibe a modified human body. Whit modified lungs.
Chinese Biosecurity News - Level 4 Labs, etc.
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vesicles
Colonel
Dear Victor, you, my friend, have quite an imagination!
Bacteria and viruses are typically much smaller than mammalian cells. Typical bacteria would be less than 1 micrometer (um) in diameter. hence, we use 0.22 micrometer filters to screen out bacteria in culturing media/saline/drug solutions in labs and hospitals. On the other hand, mammalian cells are typically tens of micrometer in diameter. Red blood cells are smaller because they have to squeeze into small capillary blood vessels. Even then, the red blood cells are 7-8 micrometer in diameter. White blood cells are so much larger. So if you want to filter, you will filter out ALL the mammalian cells before stopping any bacteria / viruses...
Fighting infectious diseases is a monumental task! Even with hundreds of thousands of scientists working on it, we still cannot even cure a common flu. Viruses mutate like crazy. Before you can even figure out how to fight one kind of virus, it has mutated a thousand times and become something completely different from the one you have in mind... And the ability of a virus to incorporate into host cells is so effective that, to this date, we have not found anything that could even slow it down...
The best way to fight infectious diseases is still our own body. Our immune system is like a key maker while the infectious agents are like locks. The only way to open a lock is to make a key that matches the lock. So the key maker has to keep churning out new keys, hoping that one of them is a match. So when a lock keeps changing its key hole, the key maker has to play catch-up and chasing the lock and hope that he can figure out a key that would eventually fit the key hole before the lock changes again. This is exactly how our immune system functions. Upon infection, our immune system begins to manufacture T-cells, each of which is decorated with a different kind of antibody. So the idea is that one unique T-cell will eventually have the matching antibody that matches the antigen. Then this kind of T-cells will be mass produced, in an effort to mark as many antigen as possible. Other white blood cells then come in and attack those marked antigens, much like missiles attacking targets painted by lasers. that's why we get so exhausted when sick. Churning out all those T-cells is very energy costly.
So the best way is to figure out how to compliment this process, not to invent new ways. Getting flu shots is actually one way to do it. We carefully introduce remnant of viruses to our body and let our body churn out some T-cells with matching antibodies. then our body will keep some of these T-cells in stock as back-up. So next time, our body sees this kind of virus, it will mount attack much faster, thus preventing the virus from mutating again. And that's also why you want to get flu shots every year for at least 10 years. Every influenza virus is different and our immune system needs to be able to recognize all of it. They typically put 3 kinds of viruses in a flu shot every year. If you get flu shots for about 10 years, that would 30 different kinds of flu viruses. That should be enough to cover most kinds of flu viruses that you might find.
Bacteria and viruses are typically much smaller than mammalian cells. Typical bacteria would be less than 1 micrometer (um) in diameter. hence, we use 0.22 micrometer filters to screen out bacteria in culturing media/saline/drug solutions in labs and hospitals. On the other hand, mammalian cells are typically tens of micrometer in diameter. Red blood cells are smaller because they have to squeeze into small capillary blood vessels. Even then, the red blood cells are 7-8 micrometer in diameter. White blood cells are so much larger. So if you want to filter, you will filter out ALL the mammalian cells before stopping any bacteria / viruses...
Fighting infectious diseases is a monumental task! Even with hundreds of thousands of scientists working on it, we still cannot even cure a common flu. Viruses mutate like crazy. Before you can even figure out how to fight one kind of virus, it has mutated a thousand times and become something completely different from the one you have in mind... And the ability of a virus to incorporate into host cells is so effective that, to this date, we have not found anything that could even slow it down...
The best way to fight infectious diseases is still our own body. Our immune system is like a key maker while the infectious agents are like locks. The only way to open a lock is to make a key that matches the lock. So the key maker has to keep churning out new keys, hoping that one of them is a match. So when a lock keeps changing its key hole, the key maker has to play catch-up and chasing the lock and hope that he can figure out a key that would eventually fit the key hole before the lock changes again. This is exactly how our immune system functions. Upon infection, our immune system begins to manufacture T-cells, each of which is decorated with a different kind of antibody. So the idea is that one unique T-cell will eventually have the matching antibody that matches the antigen. Then this kind of T-cells will be mass produced, in an effort to mark as many antigen as possible. Other white blood cells then come in and attack those marked antigens, much like missiles attacking targets painted by lasers. that's why we get so exhausted when sick. Churning out all those T-cells is very energy costly.
So the best way is to figure out how to compliment this process, not to invent new ways. Getting flu shots is actually one way to do it. We carefully introduce remnant of viruses to our body and let our body churn out some T-cells with matching antibodies. then our body will keep some of these T-cells in stock as back-up. So next time, our body sees this kind of virus, it will mount attack much faster, thus preventing the virus from mutating again. And that's also why you want to get flu shots every year for at least 10 years. Every influenza virus is different and our immune system needs to be able to recognize all of it. They typically put 3 kinds of viruses in a flu shot every year. If you get flu shots for about 10 years, that would 30 different kinds of flu viruses. That should be enough to cover most kinds of flu viruses that you might find.
Well you have right. Other way is to find what all bacteria and viruses have in common even mutated ones. And target that specific mark. I know they are working on that. Another question: some of metals have property to eradicate viruses. If we put one in blood vessels not as a filter but whit his curative power to destroy viruses will destroy white and red cells?
As far as i know copper has curative properties. Also silver ions.
vesicles
Colonel
Our entire electrophysiology, like cardiovascular and neural systems, all depends on ion balance. Any imbalance potentially leads to serious issues. You can't simply pump some metal ions into a human body and expect ONLY anti-bacterial / anti-viral effects from those added ions. For instance, we have high level of sodium (~150mM) and low level of potassium (~5mM) ions in the blood and the opposite inside cells. when you change that a little, all the ion channels begin to malfunctions, which leads to heart stopping, neuron stopping firing and brain death basically...
And we also have low level of cacium ions in blood as well as in the cell cytosol. Most of the Ca2+ ion is stored in the endoplasmic reticulum, an internal organelle inside of a cell. If you change even the slightest the balance, you get problem. A slight increase of Ca2+ ions in the blood or in the cell cytosol will activate pain sensors in cells. That's why you get the burning sensation when eating spicy food. Capsaicin, the chemical that makes pepper spicy, opens up Ca2+ channels in our cells and causes an influx of Ca2+ into cell cytosol. Ca2+ ions then activate pain receptors, thus causing burning sensation. A further increase in Ca2+ would then activate cell apoptosis (cell suicide). Your cells will begin to kill themselves. And you know what happens next when all your cells commit suicide...
That is also why drinking too much water can kill you. every year at various marathons, dozens of participants die of over-hydration. So much water intake can dilute ion concentrations so much that the entire electrophysiology is messed up. That leads to multiple organ failure and brain death.
And this is only the easy and minor stuff. Various ions, like silver and copper ions, are also involved in complex signaling cascades within cells. These activities are typically tied to cell survival, proliferation and death. You do not want to mess with it.
All in all, you cannot simply pump some random ions into your body and expect a simple change...
And we also have low level of cacium ions in blood as well as in the cell cytosol. Most of the Ca2+ ion is stored in the endoplasmic reticulum, an internal organelle inside of a cell. If you change even the slightest the balance, you get problem. A slight increase of Ca2+ ions in the blood or in the cell cytosol will activate pain sensors in cells. That's why you get the burning sensation when eating spicy food. Capsaicin, the chemical that makes pepper spicy, opens up Ca2+ channels in our cells and causes an influx of Ca2+ into cell cytosol. Ca2+ ions then activate pain receptors, thus causing burning sensation. A further increase in Ca2+ would then activate cell apoptosis (cell suicide). Your cells will begin to kill themselves. And you know what happens next when all your cells commit suicide...
That is also why drinking too much water can kill you. every year at various marathons, dozens of participants die of over-hydration. So much water intake can dilute ion concentrations so much that the entire electrophysiology is messed up. That leads to multiple organ failure and brain death.
And this is only the easy and minor stuff. Various ions, like silver and copper ions, are also involved in complex signaling cascades within cells. These activities are typically tied to cell survival, proliferation and death. You do not want to mess with it.
All in all, you cannot simply pump some random ions into your body and expect a simple change...
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vesicles
Colonel
Dear Victor, I admire your enthusiasm ad wild imagination. As Jeff suggested in another post, you should learn some basic knowledge before trying to make suggestions and to come up with wild ideas that counter anything and everything that we know of the biological world. Your username implies that you might be in college at the moment. If you are truly interested in biology, you should take a few biology classes and get some basics.
Ofcourse is not that easy. And ofcourse i know that we beeing made from chemical substances everything that we have in us can change things. That makes that the posibilityes are limited. Remain a single solution that will resolve all: when we would produce nanorobots in mass we will use them against any type of bacteria. But realistic speaking its a long way till then. But realistic speaking we are able to make a computer cpu whit bilions of nano transistors. Why if we can do that we couldnt do in next 15 years first nanorobots? We already make some things at nano scale. We are at beginning but we will advance. Ofcourse price of production will be an issue. But when we will have low price energy and complex robots mass production will be.
vesicles
Colonel
OK, Victor. If you already knew the biological system was very complex and yet still decided to make crazy suggestions, that makes you look ignorant at best and even insulting to those who work in the field. What you imply is that you believe you can solve a problem without even knowing anything about it while all those "so-called-experts" are pretty much idiots. They have so much knowledge, yet have no clue what to do with it... That's insulting... So learn some basics before making crazy suggestions. That is how you gain respect from others.
About nanobots, that concept is still on paper. To this day, the only nano material that we can make is single-component nanoparticles. People nowadays can coat nanoparticles with a thin layer of something else. That's it. Nanoparticles are being used in the medical fields now, but very limited. That is because of the toxicity of the nanoparticles. I used to make nanoparticles in grad school. Let me tell you. We never even wanted to touch the containers for nanoparticles with bare hands. People even feel weird about handling it with only one layer of gloves. This is why it is so hard to get FDA approval with nano-stuff. One of my collaborators has a company that uses nanoparticles to search and destroy tumors. It's minimally invasive since all you need to do is to inject nanoparticles into a vein. Once in the blood stream, the nanoparticles, which are coated with special sensors capable of recognizing tumor tissues, bind to these tumor tissues. An infra red light is then used to shine on the site of tumors (from outside of the body of course). These nanoparticles are specially designed to explode upon infra red stimulation, taking tumors with them. It's working like a miracle on animals and in limited human trials, but the FDA is so worried about long-term safety that they make them do all kinds of crazy tests to ensure safety.
Nowadays, "nano" is actually becoming a dirty word of some sort in medicine. We actually avoid using the term "nano" in our applications for federal grants. It's like lighting up an alarm. Everyone will get on your case on safety issues... That is why nano-tech is now mostly in the field of material science, making paints, etc.
About nanobots, that concept is still on paper. To this day, the only nano material that we can make is single-component nanoparticles. People nowadays can coat nanoparticles with a thin layer of something else. That's it. Nanoparticles are being used in the medical fields now, but very limited. That is because of the toxicity of the nanoparticles. I used to make nanoparticles in grad school. Let me tell you. We never even wanted to touch the containers for nanoparticles with bare hands. People even feel weird about handling it with only one layer of gloves. This is why it is so hard to get FDA approval with nano-stuff. One of my collaborators has a company that uses nanoparticles to search and destroy tumors. It's minimally invasive since all you need to do is to inject nanoparticles into a vein. Once in the blood stream, the nanoparticles, which are coated with special sensors capable of recognizing tumor tissues, bind to these tumor tissues. An infra red light is then used to shine on the site of tumors (from outside of the body of course). These nanoparticles are specially designed to explode upon infra red stimulation, taking tumors with them. It's working like a miracle on animals and in limited human trials, but the FDA is so worried about long-term safety that they make them do all kinds of crazy tests to ensure safety.
Nowadays, "nano" is actually becoming a dirty word of some sort in medicine. We actually avoid using the term "nano" in our applications for federal grants. It's like lighting up an alarm. Everyone will get on your case on safety issues... That is why nano-tech is now mostly in the field of material science, making paints, etc.
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Well i never said it is easy. To get there will be needed years. But i suppose one day we will succeed. After all yesterday we were monkyes in trees and now we explore space.
vesicles
Colonel
You have not listened. Yes, we need to dream big. there is nothing wrong with coming up with crazy idea. However, you need to understand the basics before making any suggestions. It's like you need to learn how to walk before wanting to run. Now? You are trying to tell professional NBA coaches and players how to play basketball, while you don't even know what a basketball looks like. Not a good idea. That's why most of your ideas have been shot down by others. It's because most of your ideas either won't work in a physical world, or have been tried and failed. Even when your question is correct, people have thought about it and solved the problems long time ago, like your gun barrel question. Yet, you composed the question like this was something that had just been noticed by only you... It just shows how much you don't know. When you propose ideas/questions like that, it's soooo difficult to take you seriously.
My suggestion: read and learn. When you have a question, don't hesitate to ask. And when you ask, compose the question in a way that people would know you are sincerely asking a question.