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The Nanotech
Antidote to Food Poisoning By Aaron Rowe November 13, 2008 Source of Article: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/the-nanotech-an.html The day after an awesome tailgate party, you feel deathly
ill. Bacterial toxins are coursing through your veins, slipping into red
blood cells, and tearing them to shreds from the inside. As the dead erythrocytes pile
up, your kidneys start to fail. Maybe the burgers were a bit too rare. Perhaps they
contained the E. coli strain O157:H7,
which is infamous for causing widespread outbreaks. If this happened tomorrow, your prognosis might not be
good. But an experimental drug, developed by David Bundle and colleagues at
the This week in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, Bundle
described special polymers that can remove toxins from the bloodstream.
Doctors could inject the nano-medicine into gravely
ill patients to protect them from damage caused by bacteria such as hemolytic-uremic
syndrome. Each of the stringy saviors, called PolyBAIT,
is decorated with carbohydrates that act like barbs. Those little hooks can
snag bacterial poisons and then stick them to an immune system protein. The protein and PolyBAIT disarm
each toxin molecule, and then drag them out of the bloodstream. Bundle and others have been trying to deactivate parasite
poisons for quite some time, but their earlier antidotes did not work well on
animals. Along with colleagues Pavel Kitov and Glen Armstrong, Bundle tested PolyBAIT on transgenic mice. When they gave a lethal dose
of shiga toxin to their fuzzy research subjects,
the new medication was able to save them. At the end of their report, Bundle and his team
speculated that their invention could be used alongside antibiotics to treat
the worst E. Coli infections. Until it is on the market, you might
want to order your burgers well done. |
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