Nanoparticles loaded with bee-venom extract can kill HIV

[Kittamaru]

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25061.aspx
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257437.php

Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” says Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, a research instructor in medicine.

The study appears in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy.

Interesting... though I have to ask - if you are allergic to bee stings, would you be allergic to this treatment as well?

 

[quantum_wave]

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25061.aspx
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257437.php



Interesting... though I have to ask - if you are allergic to bee stings, would you be allergic to this treatment as well?

There shouldn't be any contact between normal cells and the melittin contained in the nanoparticles, so I would say no.

 

[Write4U]

There shouldn't be any contact between normal cells and the melittin contained in the nanoparticles, so I would say no.

I'm David Pogue, and I'm on a quest to discover how the world's smallest materials are changing our lives: swarms of nano-machines that combat cancer on the cellular level with bee venom;...
Bee venom is a cancer drug?
Samuel Wickline (Cardiologist, Washington University): Yeah, it's an excellent cancer drug

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-stuff.html#making-stuff-smaller

and

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/nanoparticles-in-cancer-treatment/