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End the Virus: Crowdfunding Campaign for DRACO


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#1 reason

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Posted 19 October 2015 - 01:33 PM


Supporters of the DRACO (double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizer) approach to antiviral medicine have launched a crowdfunding campaign, seeking enough philanthropic funding to move forward from the excellent results in cell and animal studies. DRACO represents an entirely novel approach to the problem of viral infection, potentially applicable to near all viruses, including those that currently cannot be effectively treated. The SENS Research Foundation is acting as a sponsoring organization, allowing donations to be tax deductible. The legal side of setting up a non-profit takes a couple of years these days, so this sort of assistance is pretty common for new initiatives. DRACO has been featured at SENS conferences in past years, so it seems like a good match.

Viruses must infect human or animal cells in order to replicate, and virtually all virus-infected cells contain long double-stranded RNA, whereas healthy cells do not. DRACOs detect double-stranded RNA inside the infected cells and then cause those cells to commit suicide before the viruses can replicate and spread to other cells. DRACOs do not harm uninfected cells because DRACOs are only looking for the general structure of double-stranded RNA that is made by a wide variety of viruses. By the process of efficiently eliminating only virus-infected cells, DRACOs may be able to permanently cure viral infections that can currently only be controlled. When tested in human and animal cells, DRACOs have been nontoxic and effective against 15 different viruses, including rhinovirus (the common cold) and dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Currently, DRACOs are in the well-known Valley of Death - the financial and experimental gap between the previously funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) proof of concept experiments and the threshold for convincing major pharmaceutical companies to advance DRACOs toward human trials. This campaign has been set up to raise the funding necessary to bridge that gap. With your assistance, we hope to raise enough funding to test and optimize DRACOs against clinically relevant viruses in human cells. If successful, the results of those experiments should persuade pharmaceutical companies and other major sponsors to commit their own resources to advance DRACOs through large-scale animal trials and hopefully human trials. Without your assistance, DRACOs may never progress further, and their potential to revolutionize the treatment of viral infections may remain unfulfilled.

Link: https://www.indiegog...es-with-dracos/


View the full article at FightAging
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#2 Kimer Med

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Posted 04 September 2020 - 06:28 PM

Kimer Med is working on replicating the original results with DRACO, along with testing against SARS-CoV-2, to be followed by testing in mice and then clinical trials.

 

If you'd like to follow our work, consider subscribing to our email list:

 

https://kimermed.co.nz/landing

 

If anyone has questions about DRACO, I can try to answer them.


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#3 zorba990

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Posted 06 September 2020 - 05:56 PM

Is there any chance that beneficial viruses exist and this therapy would eliminate them also, indiscriminately?
e.g. https://www.sciencem...gainst-bacteria

https://www.medicaln...articles/327167
"Bacteriophages join the human journey at an early stage. One study examined meconium — a newborn’s first poop — and found no evidence of viruses.

However, just 1 week after birth, each gram of a baby’s poop contained about 100 million virus particles, most of which were bacteriophages. Our virome truly is a lifelong companion.

Each human has a distinct selection of bacteriophages, which is collectively referred to as the phageome. People who have roughly the same diet share more similarities, but overall, each individual’s phageome varies wildly."
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#4 Kimer Med

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Posted 09 September 2020 - 02:50 AM

Is there any chance that beneficial viruses exist and this therapy would eliminate them also, indiscriminately?
e.g. https://www.sciencem...gainst-bacteria

https://www.medicaln...articles/327167
"Bacteriophages join the human journey at an early stage. One study examined meconium — a newborn’s first poop — and found no evidence of viruses.

However, just 1 week after birth, each gram of a baby’s poop contained about 100 million virus particles, most of which were bacteriophages. Our virome truly is a lifelong companion.

Each human has a distinct selection of bacteriophages, which is collectively referred to as the phageome. People who have roughly the same diet share more similarities, but overall, each individual’s phageome varies wildly."

 

The thing about bacteriophages is that they only enter and affect bacteria, where DRACO can't reach them. DRACO works only on the inside of eukaryotic cells, not prokaryotes (bacteria).

 

Whether eukaryotic viruses have some health benefits is an interesting research question. The human immune system certainly tries hard to get rid of them, and all of the research I've seen suggests that viral infections do quite a bit of harm -- if not in the short term, certainly in the long term.


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#5 Mind

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Posted 09 September 2020 - 04:10 PM

The thing about bacteriophages is that they only enter and affect bacteria, where DRACO can't reach them. DRACO works only on the inside of eukaryotic cells, not prokaryotes (bacteria).

 

Whether eukaryotic viruses have some health benefits is an interesting research question. The human immune system certainly tries hard to get rid of them, and all of the research I've seen suggests that viral infections do quite a bit of harm -- if not in the short term, certainly in the long term.

 

I am of the opinion that a treatment like DRACO should only be used when there is a potential for death (in the short-term) in a patient. We live in an ocean of micro-organisms, inside and out. For the vast majority of our lives we live in balance and health with these innumerable micro-organisms.

 

Even though I cannot explicitly point to research that would indicate eliminating every (eukaryotic cell) virus will lead to deleterious health outcomes, it seems similar to the overuse of antibiotics. Trying to sterilize the world and eliminate bacteria, has led to very nasty antibiotic resistant strains and an escalating technological war against those strains....which many experts say we are losing.


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#6 Kimer Med

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Posted 09 September 2020 - 11:18 PM

I am of the opinion that a treatment like DRACO should only be used when there is a potential for death (in the short-term) in a patient. We live in an ocean of micro-organisms, inside and out. For the vast majority of our lives we live in balance and health with these innumerable micro-organisms.

 

Even though I cannot explicitly point to research that would indicate eliminating every (eukaryotic cell) virus will lead to deleterious health outcomes, it seems similar to the overuse of antibiotics. Trying to sterilize the world and eliminate bacteria, has led to very nasty antibiotic resistant strains and an escalating technological war against those strains....which many experts say we are losing.

 

We have no interest in sterilizing the world.

 

There are currently about 250M people infected with Hepatitis B; it kills 900K people per year, and is the largest cause of liver cancer.

 

There are about 38M people with HIV, and 1.7M new infections per year. Last year, HIV killed 700K people.

 

There are about 79M people with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), and about 14M new infections per year. It's so common that nearly everyone who is sexually active and who isn't vaccinated will catch it at some point in their lives. HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancer.

 

CMV is a known cause of immunosenescence, and therefore a contributor to aging:

https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC5186782/

 

Influenza causes 3 to 5M serious infections per year, and kills 250K to 500K per year.

 

Covid-19 and SARS-CoV-2 isn't the first pandemic, and it won't be the last.

 

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) is currently 100% fatal in infected cats.

 

African Swine Fever virus has infected 150M to 200M pigs, causing tremendous animal suffering and huge losses.

 

We care about and are fighting for people, pets and livestock affected by conditions like these. Not just those on their death bed, but also those who suffer from chronic illness, and those who want to live longer, healthier lives.


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#7 Hip

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Posted 11 September 2020 - 11:49 PM

For the vast majority of our lives we live in balance and health with these innumerable micro-organisms.

 

Professor Paul W. Ewald, who is a pretty smart guy, would disagree. He posits that science will eventually find most non-genetic diseases are caused by chronic low-level microbial infections in the cells and tissues of the body.

 

If you look at the high prevalence of chronic diseases in the world, including mental health diseases, you quickly realize that we are not living in balance and health with these microbes, if Ewald's ideas are true.

 

Simple example: you catch Strep sore throat. Usually this clears up, but in some people it appears to trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This is thought ot occur via autoimmunity, because proteins of the Strep bacterium are similar to proteins in the brain, so when the immune system makes antibodies to these Strep proteins, unfortunately then the antibodies also attack the brain, leading to OCD.

 

 

 

I challenge you to find any non-genetic chronic disease which has not already been linked to pathogenic microbes.


Edited by Hip, 11 September 2020 - 11:59 PM.

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#8 Aeon

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Posted 30 March 2021 - 09:14 PM

The DRACO research is very important, both for emerging pandemics and for existing viruses. There is an active petition calling for resuming and supporting the research that to my knowledge partly came to a halt years ago due to lack of funding:

 

https://www.change.o...isease-covid-19

 

I am of the opinion that a treatment like DRACO should only be used when there is a potential for death (in the short-term) in a patient. We live in an ocean of micro-organisms, inside and out. For the vast majority of our lives we live in balance and health with these innumerable micro-organisms.

 

Even though I cannot explicitly point to research that would indicate eliminating every (eukaryotic cell) virus will lead to deleterious health outcomes, it seems similar to the overuse of antibiotics. Trying to sterilize the world and eliminate bacteria, has led to very nasty antibiotic resistant strains and an escalating technological war against those strains....which many experts say we are losing.

 

If we would use such a treatment responsibly, it has huge potential to stop both emerging pandemic viruses, and also chronic viruses (HIV and many others). But if an exaggerated use would be made of it, I'm quite certain some viruses would develop immunity to it, just as bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.


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