If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them
I recently came across this clever antiviral idea which utilises short RNA molecules to usurp the replication machinery in a virus infected cell. This concept was devised by John Yin and Hwijin Kim at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. So, rather than trying to destroy viruses inside an infected cell, instead you simply take over the cellular machinery that the virus uses to replicate, to prevent viral proliferation. In a computer simulation, as these RNA molecules are introduced into the cell, they themselves begin to replicate, taking over of the cell’s resources, lowering of the rate of virion reproduction from 500 per minute, down to zero.
A nice concept.
It makes one question whether the cell’s replication machinery can be controlled in this way, using other means, such as radiowave interference. Some recent research has shown that FM radio waves (100 MHz) are a strong causal factor in melanoma. The hypothesis is that FM waves may be interfering with the cell’s natural DNA repair mechanism, apoptosis mechanism, and/or the body’s immune system. Thus if FM radio frequencies can do this, we may be able to find a radio frequency that can slow down the replication process in cells, and lower viral replication rates to zero.
January 27, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Its quite good concept,but these RNA elements are causing berdon on the cell by taking its cellular machinary.What about using riboswitch instead of just an replicating RNA element.Riboswitch can sense the endogenous viral protein and silence viral coding RNA,Wat say??