Maybe Some More Good Covid News - Nanotechnology Possibly to the Rescue
Mates,
Many of you will be familiar with what is called 'nanotechnology'. The 'nano' part of it and it means 'one-billionth', which is another way of saying incredibly small. Wiki will tell you that a nanometer is the length your fingernail grows in a second. I will tell you that it is the amount my sympathy meter moves when I hear ohio lost a football game. Really small.
Nanotechnology is used now in many applications including consumer electronics, automotive applications, oil and gas, you name it. There is a growing field called 'nanomedicine'. Without me trying to sound like Mr. Know-it-all, a good description of that is here:
The early genesis of the concept of nanomedicine sprang from the visionary idea that tiny nanorobots and related machines could be designed, manufactured, and introduced into the human body to perform cellular repairs at the molecular level. Nanomedicine today has branched out in hundreds of different directions, each of them embodying the key insight that the ability to structure materials and devices at the molecular scale can bring enormous immediate benefits in the research and practice of medicine.
Now for the possible good news. They say Covid-SARS-2, what we call Covid-19, is an envelope virus. That 'envelope' is a little like a shell, making it harder to effectively penetrate with medicine. They are working on a nano-medicine that would do two extremely important things:
1. It would penetrate the virus envelope more quickly than other medicines and go right to work neutralizing the RNA, proteins and amino acids of the virus.
2. They are hopeful that the nanomedicine would stay active for a longer time once taken, possibly being active for weeks or months.
Supposedly FDA testing is in the works. Thought a little bit of possible good news might be nice to share.
Be safe everybody,
XM
Who is "they"? Link to source?
i don't think that i am at liberty to say right now who 'they' is, though i have asked. it is possible that in that particular industry there is nothing secret about what i wrote, but until i get a more express blessing i have made my post intentionally vague in a couple of places as discretion seemed to be the better part of valor.
Well, I hope their work pans out!
indeed.
from what i read there is real potential, but you don't want to get too far out over our skis.
Midichlorians, guys, put your faith in midichlorians. There has been talk regarding medical uses for nano tech, but it hasn’t yet planned out as much as hoped. But nano tubes do make your tennis racket light and strong
and not even a single link of any kind---just your word for it
April 21st, 2020 at 10:09 AM ^
see post above. 'they' is a specific company.
and as to me and my word, you are right to be skeptical but know that there are a number of bloggers here (and lurking) that know me personally so i guess in a sense i'm 'peer reviewed' - now whether they think i'm okay or a jerk, i guess you'd have to ask them.
April 21st, 2020 at 11:19 AM ^
Clearly a jerk -- you called Scottie Pippen mediocre once!
April 21st, 2020 at 12:44 PM ^
and thus am i 'outed'. the ultimate litmus test. head hung in shame.
While I love the self-deprecation, I'll go a bit deeper on the ask. Since 'they' is a specific company, you know of this effort based on your work for them as an attorney?
Note that I'm not trying to get you to divulge anything that can get you targeted as a 'leaker'. But, I guess, how do you know of this company and what they are doing? What's the (general, non-specific) link, so that we can better verify the voracity of your claim?
Lemme guess - because your sisters ex-boyfriends second cousin heard that you called Pippen "mediocre", he told his nephew to let you in on the secret family investment (nanotech)? No doubt that guys family are not Blackhawk fans, and thereby given to be disagreeable towards the Bulls. So yeah, thank your sister for us!
i am not retained to do work for this company, but my source is a very 'higher up' in the company.
and yeah, if pippen had only missed a few more shots, i would've gotten away with my plan. drat, you kids, foiled again.
If it's a publicly traded company, you can trust us with your secret.
I mean, we'll all use the information to get rich, but we won't tell anyone about it.
It's the Absolute They. As in, "They say the universe is expanding. That should help with traffic."
Sure, nanotechnology is all sunshine and rainbows, and then this happens... 
So does this mean we'll all be flying around in Iron Man nanotech suits in the next few years?
Man, that would be sweet.....
Upvoted simply for this!
I will tell you that it is the amount my sympathy meter moves when I hear ohio lost a football game. Really small.
And get ready for the nanotech = microchip, anti-vax crowd to show up.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:04 AM ^
Honestly, I would love a microchip. I hate having to remember to carry my license, credit card, debit card, loyalty cards, passport, movie tickets, parking stubs, and cash with me. If I could just swipe my wrist to pay, etc., I would much happier.
I guess the word is getting out.
Nanotech and 5G. Let the propaganda begin.
I need some light reading for the evening. Please send me a QAnon link or two that ties 5G to the 'rona. Thanks.
While they carry their iPhone everywhere they go...we already have a microchip. Let’s just accept it and move on. Or go unabomber (sans the bomber part).
Believe it or not there are viruses that are actually beneficial to human beings as well as plants, animals and fish. It would need to be tested not only on humans but for it's potential impact when it enters the environment.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150430170750.htm
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327167
https://listverse.com/2018/08/13/10-viruses-that-actually-help-humankind/
I'm sort of skeptical on this approach mainly due to man's track record of "unintended consequences" of introducing a fix into nature.
i'm pretty sure its not a self-replicating technology, meaning it won't keep growing or reproducing once its introduced into a patient. that said, maybe some of the mgo-docs and/or mgo-epidemiologists/virologists can chime in.
Mgopharmadevelopmentist here. Depending on the specifics of what they are doing with the nanotechnology this is likely not anything new. Nanoparticles have been studied for my entire career 15 years and are part of a number of approved products and will likely be part of the vaccine that Moderna is developing (mRNA is not very stable outside of cells and has trouble penetrating membranes so it’s formulated in a lipid nanoparticle)
They have a number of drawbacks as they tend to penetrate membranes indiscriminately.
As a treatment, it will be along the same timeline as the vaccine regardless of what type of nanotechnology it is. 1-2 years. But you could see and proof of concept efficacy trial about 3 months after a safety trial.
It would be my guess that this is not self replicating because there are not any biotechnology companies working on that that I’m aware of. It also seems like an incredibly risky idea to introduce something like that into a person given the prognosis of Covid 19. But I’m not an expert in that subsection of nanotechnology
Incredibly risky is a huge understatement
The membrane around SARS-CoV-2, like many other viruses, is a lipid. That's partly what makes it so easily destroyed by detergents (including soap), desiccants, etc., when outside of a host. A nanomachine engineered to attack the specific lipid and glycoprotein structure of the membrane would be an ingenious, antiviral approach to treatment.
and the technology is used on other viruses. but that lipid envelope is the thing that you have to get through.
Is it though? Are there any current nano tech medicine proven to be safe and effective and accepted by the FDA? I'd love to know what current diseases we are treating with nano because I haven't heard of any.
LMGTFY
there is a lot more out there.
The short answer is yes. But it also depends a little on how to define it. For example, proteins would be considered a nanomedicine because they can be <100 nm (Humira is an example). There are other drugs that encapsulate the active ingredient in a nanoparticle. Paclitaxel, a common cancer drug, has been encapulated this way (in this case using proteins) and is known as the drug Abraxane. I used to work for a company that was doing this with Cisplatin but using chitosan to encapsulate it (still in clinical trials though).
There are also some liver drugs as well, Onpattro uses lipids to form a nanoparticle around RNA. These are just the ones I know off the top of my head.
Nanomedicine is not like putting a little robot into your body, that is a long way away.
If you are thinking of something different let me know and I will answer as best I can about what is out there.
Every membrane is some sort of lipid/phospholipid layer, including all human cells. This is because it insulates from water based bodily fluids outside the cell.
The challenge would be to specifically target the virus and not having the nanoparticles cause runaway destruction on all cells (even inadvertently from unforeseen interactions). The virus has similar proteins as it is (ACE2 substrate) to enter human cells.
This would require extensive testing and then some more; and then some more.
after the plans to furlough for up to 120 days announced by UM yesterday, I'll take any good news, even if it's potentially good news
Can they nanotechnology Oktoberfest to be uncancelled?
Resistance is futile
I knew you were shilling
I recall a Crichton book called Prey about nanotechnology. Everything worked perfectly and nothing went wrong at all.
I know you are probably being cheeky but nanotechnology is a very large field and not exclusively grey goo realm bots. Nanotechnology is already used in a number of approved pharmaceuticals.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:00 AM ^
Sidenote on the book: I read it as well, and while I liked it overall, I did get a little tired of Crichton's info-dump chapters. He needed to take information like that and do a better job of integrating it within the story as a whole, instead of simply dedicating chapters to technical jargon.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:17 AM ^
The downside to best-selling authors is that after a certain point they can get away with lazy writing. Crichton could certainly be guilty of that. I have to admit I am not a big fan of Crichton. At the same time he wrote compellingy enough to get me to finish what I thought were some awful books (Timeline comes to mind).
Great news. Lots of innovative technology and science being thrown at this which will pay off!
Some other (potentially) good news I read about this morning, possibly could help with eventual safe opening of schools in some capacity. Obviously a lot more to understand here, but it is fascinating to learn about more oddities related to this new virus:
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa424/5819060
summary from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/boy-with-covid-19-did-not-transmit-disease-to-more-than-170-contacts
April 21st, 2020 at 10:03 AM ^
If schools open, it will be for supervision purposes only. As far as the State is concerned, final grades have been entered and the year is over.
April 21st, 2020 at 11:00 AM ^
Yeah, I was looking more toward the fall...
Hopefully not another medical technology hoping to jump on the bandwagon. Seems every week someone claims to have a breakthrough, investors rush and you hear nothing else about it.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:07 AM ^
I don't think it's just a bandwagon thing; I really believe these companies have something they believe works.
Stop and think about it: it is economic suicide for a company to push snake oil, especially when the whole of society and government (for better or worse; the latter too often, unfortunately) is scrutinizing every little thing that happens with your results. If you put forth a false solution, you're risking the sullying of your name, loss of profits, and maybe even litigation or criminal charges if an Attorney General with aspirations of getting political notches on her belt decides to come after you. Even if there is a temporary bump in stocks, the long run would be catastrophic.
As Ayn Rand once quipped, the most selfish thing a business can do is benefit the employees and customers it provides for, because it is the most beneficial and self-serving thing for the business and its owners in the long run.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:26 AM ^
Outright fraud is going to be rare, but it didn’t stop Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame.
I would keep in mind that we’re in kind of a throw-anything-at-the-wall-and-hope-it-sticks phase with COVID-19. A lot of things are going to be tried, and most of them aren’t going to work. Which is fine! You expect most things you try to fail.
Hopefully *something* will work, though, and soon.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:04 AM ^
Oh great, first a pandemic, and now we are going to unleash the Faro plague on the world a few decades early. Well it was a good run everybody but it's time to shut it down.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:28 AM ^
Interesting. Whatever the solution is, I do take some comfort that there is enormous intellectual capital from all over the world, all connected in real time by information technology, working furiously to attack this virus.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^
To sci-fi buffs like myself, the first part of this particular paragraph
The early genesis of the concept of nanomedicine sprang from the visionary idea that tiny nanorobots and related machines could be designed, manufactured, and introduced into the human body to perform cellular repairs at the molecular level. Nanomedicine today has branched out in hundreds of different directions, each of them embodying the key insight that the ability to structure materials and devices at the molecular scale can bring enormous immediate benefits in the research and practice of medicine.
...is a bit reminiscent of the concept of and ideas behind the novel and 60's movie Fantastic Voyage.
April 21st, 2020 at 11:48 AM ^
Did someone say Fantastic Voyage? Cool . . . io: