41 replies to this topic

[PhysiologicOxygen]

C60 Sugar Balls (Glycofullerenes) inhibit viral infection Ebola & DC-SIGN antagonists. And... Biodegradable Calcium phosphate (CaP) NPs... A potent T cell-mediated immune responsee.

 

Fullerene Sugar Balls: A New Class of Biologically Active Fullerene Derivatives
Water-soluble glycofullerenes based on a hexakis-adduct of [60]fullerene with an octahedral addition pattern are very attractive compounds providing a spherical presentation of carbohydrates. These tools have been recently described and they have been used to interact with lectins in a multivalent manner. Here, we present the use of these glycofullerenes, including new members with 36 mannoses, as compounds able to inhibit a DC-SIGN-dependent cell infection by pseudotyped viral particles. The results obtained in these experiments demonstrate for the first time that these glycoconjugates are adequate to inhibit efficiently an infection process, and therefore, they can be considered as very promising and interesting tools to interfere in biological events where lectins such as DC-SIGN are involved.

http://onlinelibrary...10...A4E.f02t01

Fullerene Sugar Balls: A New Class of Biologically Active Fullerene Derivatives
Water-soluble glycofullerenes based on a hexakis-adduct of [60]fullerene with an octahedral addition pattern are very attractive compounds providing a spherical presentation of carbohydrates. These tools have been recently described and they have been used to interact with lectins in a multivalent manner. Here, we present the use of these glycofullerenes, including new members with 36 mannoses, as compounds able to inhibit a DC-SIGN-dependent cell infection by pseudotyped viral particles. The results obtained in these experiments demonstrate for the first time that these glycoconjugates are adequate to inhibit efficiently an infection process, and therefore, they can be considered as very promising and interesting tools to interfere in biological events where lectins such as DC-SIGN are involved.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/23281578

 

Immunization with biodegradable nanoparticles efficiently induces cellular immunity and protects against influenza virus infection

The ability of vaccines to induce T cell responses is crucial for preventing diseases caused by viruses or bacteria. Nanoparticles (NPs) are considered an efficient tool for inducing potent immune responses. In this study, we describe a novel vaccination approach with biodegradable calcium phosphate (CaP) NPs that serve as carrier of immunoactive TLR9 ligand (CpG) combined with a viral Ag from the influenza A virus hemagglutinin. Functionalized CaP NPs were efficiently taken up by dendritic cells in vivo and elicited a potent T cell-mediated immune response in immunized mice with high numbers of IFN-γ-producing CD4(+) and CD8(+) effector T cells. Most importantly, both i.p. and intranasal immunization with these NPs offered protection in a mouse model of influenza virus infection. This study demonstrates the great potential of CaP NPs as a novel vaccination tool that offers substantial flexibility for several infection models.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/23667109

 

Stunning News For Biodegradable NanoParticles

[PhysiologicOxygen]

Nobody found this interesting? Amazing!

[Kalliste]

It IS interesting but I have nothing to add. There is similar results coming out of C60 Squalene, C60 polyhydroxylated, hydrated and whatever. It is promising research.

[niner]

Here is a somewhat later paper on fullerene sugarballs.
 

Chem Asian J. 2014 Jun;9(6):1436-44. doi: 10.1002/asia.201400133. Epub 2014 Mar 26.
Fullerene sugar balls: a new class of biologically active fullerene derivatives.
Nierengarten I1, Nierengarten JF.

Among the large variety of bioactive C60 derivatives, fullerene derivatives substituted with sugar residues, that is, glycofullerenes, are of particular interest. The sugar residues are not only solubilizing groups; their intrinsic biological properties also provide additional appealing features to the conjugates. The most recent advances in the synthesis and the biological applications of glycofullerenes are summarized in the present review article with special emphasis on globular glycofullerenes, that is, fullerene sugar balls, constructed on a hexa-substituted fullerene scaffold. The high local concentration of carbohydrates around the C60 core in fullerene sugar balls is perfectly suited to the binding of lectins through the "glycoside cluster effect", and these compounds are potential anti-adhesive agents against bacterial infection. Moreover, mannosylated fullerene sugar balls have shown antiviral activity in an Ebola pseudotyped infection model. Finally, when substituted with peripheral iminosugars, dramatic multivalent effects have been observed for glycosidase inhibition. These unexpected observations have been rationalized by the interplay of interactions involving the catalytic site of the enzyme and non-glycone binding sites with lectin-like abilities.

PMID: 24678063

[zen]

Here is a somewhat later paper on fullerene sugarballs.
 

Chem Asian J. 2014 Jun;9(6):1436-44. doi: 10.1002/asia.201400133. Epub 2014 Mar 26.
Fullerene sugar balls: a new class of biologically active fullerene derivatives.
Nierengarten I1, Nierengarten JF.

Among the large variety of bioactive C60 derivatives, fullerene derivatives substituted with sugar residues, that is, glycofullerenes, are of particular interest. The sugar residues are not only solubilizing groups; their intrinsic biological properties also provide additional appealing features to the conjugates. The most recent advances in the synthesis and the biological applications of glycofullerenes are summarized in the present review article with special emphasis on globular glycofullerenes, that is, fullerene sugar balls, constructed on a hexa-substituted fullerene scaffold. The high local concentration of carbohydrates around the C60 core in fullerene sugar balls is perfectly suited to the binding of lectins through the "glycoside cluster effect", and these compounds are potential anti-adhesive agents against bacterial infection. Moreover, mannosylated fullerene sugar balls have shown antiviral activity in an Ebola pseudotyped infection model. Finally, when substituted with peripheral iminosugars, dramatic multivalent effects have been observed for glycosidase inhibition. These unexpected observations have been rationalized by the interplay of interactions involving the catalytic site of the enzyme and non-glycone binding sites with lectin-like abilities.

PMID: 24678063

In my opinion the best way to deal with Ebola would be to vaccinate people so they are not getting sick in the first place.

The most advanced vaccine (again in my opinion) is Ebola DNA vaccine developed by Inovio.
http://www.inovio.co...vaccines/ebola/

It can protect against different strains of the virus and in the animal trials 100% of vaccinated animals were protected from the deadly dose of live virus.

The very important characteristic of this vaccine is that it is both preventive and therapeutic.

Edit: fixed broken attribution -niner

Edited by niner, 05 October 2014 - 12:57 AM.

[Kalliste]

Niner is not suggesting Ebola is treated with c60glycowhatever. That paper was published before the current epidemic reached nasty proportions.

Edited by Cosmicalstorm, 05 October 2014 - 04:49 AM.

[RorschachRev]

I'm willing to start a donation site that would send turmeric by the pound to affected areas. We can stop Ebola through paypal. That wouldn't fix dehydration issues, but we could include some information like, "Drink water or you die." along with the herbal medicine. The cost to treat each person could be estimated but I think it would be less than $0.50 per person for a cure, and less than $0.20 per person for prevention. I can run the numbers, but a lot depends on getting a discount "by the pound" and shipping costs.

[RorschachRev]

2 teaspoons a day is 6.26g per person. 1 month of treatment is approximately 200g but that is unrealistically high because if it doesn't work, then the people don't have a month to live.  

200g/month for "ill" people

100g/month dose for "exposure" 

50g/month "maintenance"  (3 capsules a day - 3 times higher than normal dose)

 

$3 is my target cost for treating people with "exposure" followed by $1.50/month

I have already found a bulk rate supplier and a few clinics (Sierra Leone being initial target) that I will try contacting throughout the week. I intend to ship the turmeric directly to the clinics along with those dosage recommendations. I will ask them to monitor the results. Even if it is only 20% effective, that is probably far better than what is currently available. This is a broad antiviral, and cured my mother's cat scratch fever on a 4.5 gram total dose over 24 hours. Budgeting 200g is drastic overkill, and we can probably reduce the amounts to more reasonable numbers.   

[RorschachRev]

Took a few hours to get stopebola.co up. I need to place some new images. Here's some research: http://insidesurgery...ric-stop-ebola/

Edited by RorschachRev, 06 October 2014 - 09:00 AM.

[Kalliste]

That is an interesting initiative.

[niner]

I'm willing to start a donation site that would send turmeric by the pound to affected areas. We can stop Ebola through paypal. That wouldn't fix dehydration issues, but we could include some information like, "Drink water or you die." along with the herbal medicine. The cost to treat each person could be estimated but I think it would be less than $0.50 per person for a cure, and less than $0.20 per person for prevention. I can run the numbers, but a lot depends on getting a discount "by the pound" and shipping costs.

 

Do we have any evidence that Ebola can be successfully treated with turmeric?  This article isn't very promising, stating: "Among the bogus remedies: consuming Turmeric and drinking and bathing in salt water.".

[Kalliste]

More likely Turmeric would have some difficult to measure 0.1 % effect on diseaseprogression when consumed orally. Maybe it would do something useful on an agressive IV protocol, maybe. Oral consumption cant help with a normal cold once established so I seriously doubt it will help re Ebola. C60 and other Mito-antis might do more, didn't Skulachev say the Lifeextension-effect of SKQ1 mainly came from it helping the immunesystem?

Edited by Cosmicalstorm, 07 October 2014 - 05:15 AM.

[RorschachRev]

I provide a fair number of links to research  and the links are different. 

http://www.stopebola...ion-cdc-and-who  

 

http://www.stopebola.co/article/turmeric-medical

 

The article you linked claimed Turmeric was bogus, but there was no reference material or direct claim. Drinking too much saltwater will kill you and that is well known. So is the safety of eating Turmeric, although more than 4 teaspoons a day is not recommended. The article you linked seemed to bolster the drug they are testing on humans, even though there is less evidence and testing. The CDC talks a lot about it, without saying much. 

 

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/qa-experimental-treatments.html 

 

On the other hand, herbal treatments are permitted under their ethical experimentation guidelines at the WHO.

Edit: fixing links. Twice.

Edited by RorschachRev, 07 October 2014 - 07:59 AM.

[RorschachRev]

I did a little poking on ZMapp. It is a bunch of Chinese researchers who published the original papers. Their approach was a "plant based" source of monoclonal antibodies. Two common compounds for performing this testing or confirming against other sources are curcumin (turmeric) and resveratrol.

 

The article you linked failed to mention that the entire supply of ZMapp has already been consumed.

 

[RorschachRev]

Interesting that WHO didn't say, "Turmeric doesn't work." Instead they said, "We don't have any testing but several things are promising." Meanwhile MEG WAGNER at nydailynews.com expands that to say, "Turmeric is a phony claim." based on the WHO article which never mentions any specific treatment aside from drinking saltwater, which killed people. (WHO and CDC recommends IV use of saline solution as their primary treatment method.)

[Kalliste]

Nobody eat Turmeric like me, yet I still get the occasional cold and runny stomach. I eat both powder and fresh roots every day. Heated, with oliveoil, without any dairy, with pepper, ginger and currypowder. Do you seriously think it will deal with Ebola? I bet you stumbled over some in vitro paper where they drenched a few Ebola guys with a million times as much Turmeric as can be achieved in vivo even with injections. You better have good sources or I will doubt you.

 

Edited for polity.

Edited by PerC, 08 October 2014 - 03:24 PM.

[zen]

I provide a fair number of links to research  and the links are different. 

http://www.stopebola...ion-cdc-and-who  

 

http://www.stopebola.co/article/turmeric-medical

 

The article you linked claimed Turmeric was bogus, but there was no reference material or direct claim. Drinking too much saltwater will kill you and that is well known. So is the safety of eating Turmeric, although more than 4 teaspoons a day is not recommended. The article you linked seemed to bolster the drug they are testing on humans, even though there is less evidence and testing. The CDC talks a lot about it, without saying much. 

 

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/qa-experimental-treatments.html 

 

On the other hand, herbal treatments are permitted under their ethical experimentation guidelines at the WHO.

Edit: fixing links. Twice.

 

I have looked at the CDC webpage, link to which you have posted above.
It is absolutely amazing that there is absolutely no information available about the Ebola DNA vaccine developed by Inovio.

If you are really interested in fighting Ebola I think you should definitely research this particular vaccine. It is cheap to mass produce, proven to be 100% effective in animals and also to be very safe. Also see my post #5 above.


 

[RorschachRev]

What the fuck. Nobody eat Turmeric like me, yet I still get the occasional cold and runny stomach. I eat both powder and fresh roots every day. Heated, with oliveoil, without any dairy, with pepper, ginger and currypowder. Do you seriously think it will deal with Ebola? I bet you stumbled over some in vitro paper where they drenched a few Ebola guys with a million times as much Turmeric as can be achieved in vivo even with injections. You better have good sources or I will doubt you. If you actually have a simple cheap herbal cure for Ebola please call the Nobel committee and buy a fresh suit for next years awards.

Ebola uses VP24 to bind STAT1. Pubmed articles directly linked

 

http://www.stopebola...urmeric-medical

[RorschachRev]

 

I have looked at the CDC webpage, link to which you have posted above.
It is absolutely amazing that there is absolutely no information available about the Ebola DNA vaccine developed by Inovio.

If you are really interested in fighting Ebola I think you should definitely research this particular vaccine. It is cheap to mass produce, proven to be 100% effective in animals and also to be very safe. Also see my post #5 above.


 

 

ZMapp is made by infecting tobacco plants with Ebola. http://www.mappbio.com/zmappfaq.pdf I've seen reports that claim 100% survival rate for ZMapp patients, but the mice apparently had an 80% survival rate in laboratory conditions with planned exposure. Even if there was 100% survival rate, there is no ZMapp to be had anywhere in the world for another 2-3 months while the plants are grown, infected, harvested and refined.

 

I'm not suggesting a cure, and I'm not proposing something so dangerous as a vaccine. I'm trying to give patients 2-5 days higher life expectancy so that their bodies can fight off ebola. If we are able to accomplish that with 50% of the people treated, that would lower the mortality rate from 2 out of 3, to 1 out of 3. I'm not saying this is a cure, I'm saying we should do what is available today. I spoke with DHL today and I'm going to try another shipping method tomorrow, spending *my* money to send something that could save lives today. 

[zen]

 

 

I have looked at the CDC webpage, link to which you have posted above.
It is absolutely amazing that there is absolutely no information available about the Ebola DNA vaccine developed by Inovio.

If you are really interested in fighting Ebola I think you should definitely research this particular vaccine. It is cheap to mass produce, proven to be 100% effective in animals and also to be very safe. Also see my post #5 above.


 

 

ZMapp is made by infecting tobacco plants with Ebola. http://www.mappbio.com/zmappfaq.pdf I've seen reports that claim 100% survival rate for ZMapp patients, but the mice apparently had an 80% survival rate in laboratory conditions with planned exposure. Even if there was 100% survival rate, there is no ZMapp to be had anywhere in the world for another 2-3 months while the plants are grown, infected, harvested and refined.

 

I'm not suggesting a cure, and I'm not proposing something so dangerous as a vaccine. I'm trying to give patients 2-5 days higher life expectancy so that their bodies can fight off ebola. If we are able to accomplish that with 50% of the people treated, that would lower the mortality rate from 2 out of 3, to 1 out of 3. I'm not saying this is a cure, I'm saying we should do what is available today. I spoke with DHL today and I'm going to try another shipping method tomorrow, spending *my* money to send something that could save lives today. 

 

 

I am not sure why you claim the vaccine is dangerous because I think exactly the opposite is true. I would appreciate any information regarding the above.

I definitely admire you spending your own money and trying to help people and I wish you best of luck with all these efforts. Any help we can provide to the people fighting Ebola is priceless - thank you!





 

[RorschachRev]

Zen, the US pharmaceutical companies are indemnified from all damages resulting from childhood vaccines, even though there is a large group of people (myself included) that think that vaccines are causing diabetes in children without any prior family history and don't fit the overweight type 2 profile. I dislike the idea of using chicken eggs to breed viruses that you "mostly kill" and then inject into people. I would personally feel better with the plant sterol based ZMapp than a bunch of "mostly dead" ebola viruses injected into me.

 

Thank  you for the consideration Zen. I looked a map of the projected "reported" cases that didn't even extrapolate to the unreported cases of ebola. It was... nerve wracking.  

http://healthmap.org/ebola/#projection

[niner]

 I dislike the idea of using chicken eggs to breed viruses that you "mostly kill" and then inject into people. I would personally feel better with the plant sterol based ZMapp than a bunch of "mostly dead" ebola viruses injected into me.

 

What?  I don't think that anyone is using a "mostly killed" Ebola virus as a vaccine.  I've heard of a DNA vaccine...  That is not an active virus.

[niner]

I provide a fair number of links to research  and the links are different. 
http://www.stopebola...ion-cdc-and-who  
 
http://www.stopebola...urmeric-medical
 
The article you linked claimed Turmeric was bogus, but there was no reference material or direct claim. Drinking too much saltwater will kill you and that is well known. So is the safety of eating Turmeric, although more than 4 teaspoons a day is not recommended. The article you linked seemed to bolster the drug they are testing on humans, even though there is less evidence and testing. The CDC talks a lot about it, without saying much.

You don't have a single paper that shows an anti-ebola effect from turmeric, do you? I went to your site, and there are some pubmed searches. I didn't see anything that suggested that turmeric was going to help people infected with Ebola.

Edited by niner, 08 October 2014 - 01:04 AM.

[zen]

I dislike the idea of using chicken eggs to breed viruses that you "mostly kill" and then inject into people.

Well, other than suggesting again to do some research regarding the DNA vaccines I am not sure what else can I say.

The Inovio's vaccines are not "killed viruses" and they are not bred on chicken eggs.
This is a 21st century technology, where vaccines are designed in the computers using a small strands of DNA characteristic in this particular case to the known strains of Ebola virus.

Because vaccine is not using the any parts of the actual virus there is no danger that the host might be actually infected with Ebola virus.

Bottom line, it is in my opinion a very interesting and probably groundbreaking technology, which you might actually enjoy learning about.

However, if you do not have time or willingness to read more about it, please at least try to refrain from posting incorrect information.


 

Edited by zen, 08 October 2014 - 01:34 AM.

[RorschachRev]

Zen, interesting DNA assembly and "electroportation" (damage to cell walls permitting DNA strands to infect cell). The Gardasil vaccine is made from chicken eggs and various strands of HPV as I listed. Inovio is claiming their DNA "vaccine" will help patients who have current HPV infections. 

 

Unfortunately there are no Inovio documents on Pubmed related to Ebola, so I had to extrapolate from reading about their HPV "vaccine".  http://www.ncbi.nlm....?report=classic

 

The majority of the documents I read about Inovio's "vaccine" included stock ticker information or were investor relations programs.

 

This article bothers me, http://www.dnavaccine.com/tag/inovio/  because of statements like, " The Inovio vaccine contains bits of Ebola virus DNA." Ebola is an RNA virus and has no DNA strands. 

[RorschachRev]

 

I provide a fair number of links to research  and the links are different. 
http://www.stopebola...ion-cdc-and-who  
 
http://www.stopebola...urmeric-medical
 
The article you linked claimed Turmeric was bogus, but there was no reference material or direct claim. Drinking too much saltwater will kill you and that is well known. So is the safety of eating Turmeric, although more than 4 teaspoons a day is not recommended. The article you linked seemed to bolster the drug they are testing on humans, even though there is less evidence and testing. The CDC talks a lot about it, without saying much.

You don't have a single paper that shows an anti-ebola effect from turmeric, do you? I went to your site, and there are some pubmed searches. I didn't see anything that suggested that turmeric was going to help people infected with Ebola.

 

 

There are no EMapp or Inovio PubMed articles specific to Ebola either. EMapp claims to have documents that will be published later.

Edited by RorschachRev, 08 October 2014 - 02:06 AM.

[zen]

Unfortunately there are no Inovio documents on Pubmed related to Ebola, so I had to extrapolate from reading about their HPV "vaccine".  http://www.ncbi.nlm....?report=classic

 

 

I did a quick search and here is the link to the peer reviewed article:
http://www.nature.co.../mt201361a.html

I hope this helps.

[Kalliste]

A vaxxer and a pseudoscientist. This went off topic awfully fast. I'm grateful for your intention re Ebola but maybe you should donate money via GiveWell instead of tossing them into the ocean.

http://www.givewell.org/

[RorschachRev]

Thanks Zen, I just read it. I stopped going to Nature.com when they claimed that 5500 people die every day from Malaria. I did a quick trip to WHO and they claimed that 450k die per year. That's 1.2k deaths per day on average. I got the impression that Nature.com writers often have some ax to grind. 

 

I've read repeatedly that opportunistic infections are a problem, and that if they could keep the patient alive for a few more days the patient would be able to develop the necessary antibodies to survive. If a broad spectrum antivirus is able to do that, we don't have a "cure" we just have a "treatment" that is better than saline solution and isolation.

 

Here is the fundamental basis for why I think turmeric is a possible treatment vector (but not necessarily a cure). http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC3285596/ The VP24 in all 5 ebola viruses target the STAT1 protein for infection. STAT1 is a common binding method for viral attacks: rhinovirus and parainfluenza virus infections. "Here, we demonstrate that VP24 also binds directly to STAT1 itself"

From linked article:

The importance of STAT1 to the antiviral response is underlined by the fact that viruses (and other microbes) have evolved proteins that inhibit every step of STAT1 activation [14]. As examples, the V proteins of Nipah and Hendra viruses and the P protein of rabies virus directly bind to P-STAT1 to sequester it in the cytoplasm [34]–[36]. By contrast, the P protein of measles virus and an unidentified protein of human metapneumovirus prevent phosphorylation of STAT1 [37], [38], while the VH1 protein of vaccinia virus and the NS5 protein of Japanese encephalitis virus actively dephosphorylate the P-STAT1 complex [39],[40], and the V protein of mumps causes ubiquitination and degradation of P-STAT1 [41]. The VP24 protein of ebolavirus, in yet another mechanism, prevents nuclear translocation of P-STAT1 by binding to the karyopherin α transporter proteins [9]–[11].

 

A 5 hour pre-treatment of PBMCs isolated from healthy donors with curcumin (10 µM or 20 µM) also inhibited the ability of IFN-α and IFN-γ to phosphorylate STAT1 or STAT3 (Figure 3A). Curcumin pre-treatments also led to a striking inhibition of IL-2-induced STAT5 phosphorylation in PBMCs (Figure 3B). These data suggested the inhibitory effects of curcumin were broad and not specific to the interferons.

 

 

I'm going through looking at filovirus publications and I'm going to read as many of the 160+ generic turmeric antiviral pubmed articles as I can.

 

[RorschachRev]

Footnotes 6-21 list anti-viral properties of turmeric. http://www.ncbi.nlm....es/PMC3641039/ 

The list includes: HIV-1, HIV-2, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Japanese encephalitis, influenza, herpes, coxsackievirus. This specific study had good results for: H1N1, H6N1, paramyxovirus, Japanese encephalitis, Dengue Virus II, pseudorabies virus.

 

Among 2 larger DNA viruses: they had no inhibitory results for enterovirus 71,  vaccinia virus required higher concentrations of curcumin to reduce infectivity to 30%. 

 

"This results supports our hypothesis that the requirement for a higher curcumin concentration to inhibit the infectivity of viral particles with larger diameters." "Curcumin could serve as a virucidal agent for enveloped viruses." - Which includes Ebola. 

 

This is such a broad antiviral, the bigger question in my mind (put on your tin foil hat) is why nobody has tested Turmeric against Ebola and published the results? There are no results - positive or negative - for turmeric and Ebola that I have been able to find. Am I so strange to think that maybe we should try this? Maybe we should collect some real world data and possibly save lives doing it instead of just doing PCR assays on DMSO treated cell lines? If Turmeric does not work, and something else does, I'll jump on the bandwagon of doing what works. 

 

One thing seems pretty obvious though, saline solution is not a cure. Let's try something else.