Word: virality
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Based on five years of research, the new treatment uses a light-sensitive dye to disrupt the development of the virus. According to Dr. Troy Felber, who headed the Baylor team, the photoactive dye combines with the viral genetic material, or DNA, to increase its sensitivity to light. Once this occurs, visible light, which is absorbed by the dye, apparently breaks the DNA strands, causing the virus to expire...
...potential panacea is isoprinosine, a derivative of the chemical inosine found in muscle tissue. In 1958, Gordon began experimenting with inosine to lessen "absentmindedness" in aged rats and mice. The substance, which stimulates protein production by brain cells, worked. Gordon observed that the drug also prevented viral action by blocking the genetic information that viruses must carry into cells in order to reproduce themselves (TIME, April 19). Speculating that the drug's antiviral action might be a useful medical tool, Gordon began to search for a derivative that did not have inosine's unpleasant side effect, a prolonged...
...approved for clinical use in Argentina, isoprinosine is under test at 15 institutions in the U.S. Gordon believes it could some day have tremendous impact on disease treatment. Unlike drugs that merely suppress the symptoms of viral disease, isoprinosine attacks the viruses themselves, preventing them from reproducing and thus reducing the scope of infection. So far, says Gordon, it has proved effective in tissue culture against the viruses that cause influenza and the herpes viruses responsible for shingles and chicken pox. But it still falls short of cure for man's most common ailment, for, as Gordon points...
...recent experiments at Princeton, Biochemist Max Burger found that when he stripped normal mouse cells of their membranes, they continued to grow wildly?as do cancer cells?even after they had touched. Burger thus speculates that the loss of a cell's protective coating, possibly as a result of viral infection, could lead to cancer by exposing a sensitive area that signals the cells to continue growth. If the protective covering could be restored, he suggests, it might be possible to stop the genes of cancer cells from ordering further growth...
...many cancer cells, although they have unique antigens that should alert the body to their presence. Accordingly, doctors have begun exploring ways of beefing up the body's defenses and immunizing man against cancer in the same way that he can now be vaccinated against polio and other viral diseases...