>> ^Skeeve:

What I'd like to know is, why HIV specifically?
On paper it is actually quite easy to cure cancer with a virus. Cancer cells differ from healthy cells in that they lack a specific protein on the exterior of the cell that tells the cell to stop dividing when it is touching other cells. If we can manipulate a virus into attacking only cells without that protein then we can cure cancer. It seems to me that having a common cold or flu virus with this modification would work just fine. So why HIV?


HIV is a retrovirus that places genes into our DNA. The genes introduced into the white blood cells then cause the blood cells to produce proteins which kill the cancer cells.

>> ^TheGenk:

We all know that that didn't cure him. What cured him was accepting jesus christ as his savior.
</sarcasm>
But what this shows is that one day we will be able to take the genes for HIV-resistance and insert them into your stemcells or stemcells being transplanted to you(or any resistances we find or would be nice to have).


You also wiped out the existing white blood cells with chemo, which makes this a special case of was it the stem cells alone, or was the chemo needed as well. Chemo therapy has high risks as well, you can die from a simple infection in this depressed imuno-state. Like the lady said, it was more a proof of concept than a solution in itself.

They're look like white blood cells.

>> ^lampishthing:

Phagocyte?

Yes, neutrophil.

Your video, White blood cell chases bacteria to the Benny Hill theme, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'benny hill, biology, cells, white blood cells, bacteria, science' to 'benny hill, biology, cells, white blood cells, bacteria, science, yakety sax' - edited by kronosposeidon

I'm not going to call 'dupe' but this is very similar to:
http://videosift.com/video/High-Speed-Chase
and
http://videosift.com/video/White-Blood-Cell-Chasing-and-Engulfing-a-Bacterium

the only difference between the tree being the soundtrack.

>> ^NobleOne:I am a firm believer that if you were to have nanobots they would have been produced naturally kind of like white blood cells... I can't see how nanobots is an evolutionary trait....we are meant to live and meant to die....thus continues the circle of life... oh and if you want to work on your neurons in your brain just go get high....take the time and read about pot or watch.... http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Union-The-Business-Behind-Gettin
g-High-1
oh and side note shrooms regardless of where they grow are natural not man made...



I can certainly understand people only wanting "natural" things in their bodies, I just happen not to share that desire. I can think of plenty of natural things that will kill a person (or worse).

I am concerned more with safety and effect than I am with origin. If one of my major organs began to fail then I would not hesitate to replace it with an artificial version (if available).


You also claim that death is a part of the "cycle of life". Would you feel the same way if death were optional? Would you choose to die prematurely to continue the cycle even if living longer did not require artificial means?

Eventually natural death will be "curable". Maybe we'll be alive to see it, maybe not. It will happen though (assuming no cataclysms) and people will have to deal with these questions. Some will opt out of extended life and others will not, but I do believe that the decision should be up to each individual.

I guess I don't see much of a difference between the two. I don't want electrodes sticking out of my head, but if nanobots can some day reverse the damage to the brain through the process of aging then I would have no moral objection to using them (again, after a reasonable level of safety has been established).


I am a firm believer that if you were to have nanobots they would have been produced naturally kind of like white blood cells... I can't see how nanobots is an evolutionary trait....we are meant to live and meant to die....thus continues the circle of life... oh and if you want to work on your neurons in your brain just go get high....take the time and read about pot or watch.... http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Union-The-Business-Behind-Getting-High-1

oh and side note shrooms regardless of where they grow are natural not man made...

You phagocyte you. I think that white blood cell is racist.

It's a white blood cell (neutrophil) chasing a bacterium via chemotaxis.
Neutrophils are phagocytes, so one of the ways they neutralize foreign objects in the body is by engulfing them.

and here is a video of a neutrophil gobbling up fungal cell like they were power pellets:
here

Depleted uranium (DU) was used in tank kinetic energy penetrator and autocannon rounds on a large scale for the first time in the Gulf War. DU munitions often burn when they impact a hard target, producing toxic combustion products. The toxicity, effects, distribution, and exposure involved have all been the subject of a lengthy and complex debate.

Because uranium is a heavy metal and chemical toxicant with nephrotoxic (kidney-damaging), teratogenic (birth defect-causing), and potentially carcinogenic properties, uranium exposure is associated with a variety of illnesses. The chemical toxicological hazard posed by uranium dwarfs its radiological hazard because it is only weakly radioactive, and depleted uranium even less so.

Early studies of depleted uranium aerosol exposure assumed that uranium combustion product particles would quickly settle out of the air and thus could not affect populations more than a few kilometers from target areas, and that such particles, if inhaled, would remain undissolved in the lung for a great length of time and thus could be detected in urine. Uranyl ion contamination has been found on and around depleted uranium targets.

DU has recently been recognized as a neurotoxin. In 2005, depleted uranium was shown to be a neurotoxin in rats.

In 2001, a study was published in Military Medicine that found DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans. Another study, published by Health Physics in 2004, also showed DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans. A study of UK veterans who thought they might have been exposed to DU showed aberrations in their white blood cell chromosomes. Mice immune cells exposed to uranium exhibit abnormalities.

Increases in the rate of birth defects for children born to Gulf War veterans have been reported. A 2001 survey of 15,000 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times as likely to report having children with birth defects. In early 2004, the UK Pensions Appeal Tribunal Service attributed birth defect claims from a February 1991 Gulf War combat veteran to depleted uranium poisoning.

In 2005, uranium metalworkers at a Bethlehem plant near Buffalo, New York, exposed to frequent occupational uranium inhalation risks, were alleged by non-scientific sources to have the same patterns of symptoms and illness as Gulf War Syndrome victims.

The NATO countries of France, the United Kingdom and the United States have consistently rejected calls for a ban, maintaining that its use continues to be legal, and that the health risks are entirely unsubstantiated. The UK government further alleges that cancers and birth defects in Iraq could be blamed on the Iraqi Government's use of chemical weapons on its own citizens.

"Considering the disturbing reports on the ill effects of DU weapons in the Gulf and the Balkans, it is saddening to note that so far appeals for a moratorium coming from different quarters have not yet prevailed. Killing first and asking questions later has, however, never been a sensible solution"

- United Nations Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, at paragraph 171 under the title "Moratorium" for the use of military DU rounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Military_applications

EDIT - Unfortunately I don't see this issue being addressed by anyone soon, because pulling DU out of the entire military ammunition apparatus did not happen since 1991 and Gulf War Sickness when VA vets complained, and I don't see it happening now. This being all sickly ironic given that --

Aircraft may also contain depleted uranium trim weights (a Boeing 747-100 may contain 400 to 1,500 kg). This application of DU is controversial. If an aircraft crashes there is concern that the uranium would enter the environment: the metal can oxidize to a fine powder in a fire. Its use has been phased out in many newer aircraft; Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas discontinued using DU counterweights in the 1980s. Some amount of depleted uranium was released eg. during the Bijlmer disaster, when 152 kg was 'lost'. Counterweights are manufactured with cadmium plating and are considered non-hazardous while the plating is intact.

So unsafe in airplanes, safe in war zones. Huh.

Kinda reminds of science films of white blood cells attacking foreign bodies. Upvote, in hopes that this will be the only hockey fight posted, after all, it is a model.

"The Inner Life of the Cell,' which was presented at Siggraph 2006 in a condensed form. This extraordinary animation explores 'the mechanisms that allow a white blood cell to sense its surroundings and respond to an external stimulus."

http://www.xvivo.net/press/harvard_university.htm from http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/02/131227