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GDG

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Everything posted by GDG

  1. Sorry, I can't agree with anything you've presented as fact. Can I (personally) catch a wild rodent? Maybe -- I haven't had occasion to try. But many, many people have survived by catching and eating rodents such as rabbits and squirrels. So, I'd have to say that humans are capable of catching wild rodents. Could I bite the head off a wild rodent? Probably. Even the human jaw can develop quite a lot of biting force. If I had to do it periodically, I'm sure I would develop the necessary jaw muscles. And I think that there is at least one notable example of a rock singer biting the head off a bat... Sharp front teeth: yes, we do have sharp front teeth. They aren't shaped like those of obligate carnivores because we are omnivores, and our teeth are adapted for more than just ripping flesh. Our teeth are also substantially different from those of herbivores. Would you argue that we shouldn't eat vegetables or grains because we don't have teeth like cattle and sheep? I don't see that the length of time meat resides in the GI tract means anything at all. Perhaps we just spend more time in order to obtain a more efficient extraction of nutrients. "That's not natural" is not a scientific argument, and (if 36 hours is true) it obviously is natural: we obviously have not deliberately extended that time. Can't digest raw meat? You apparently have never had a rare steak, steak tartare, or carpacchio. People eat raw meat every day, and, yes, digest it. Deadly diseases: We in the developed world possibly eat too much meat, but disorders caused by overconsumption do not indicate that all consumption is bad. Drinking too much water can be deadly too, and much more rapidly.
  2. Vaccines are still not understood in complete detail, so in general you still need to experiment. With regard to mode of delivery, to some extent this can depend on what form of response you want. Administering a live oral attenuated virus to the GI tract seems to be good for stimulating mucosal immunity (IgA antibodies), while intramuscual injection is generally good for IgG. Adjuvants basically boost the immune response. Your immune response inherently recognizes some antigens as pathogenic, and responds automatically. Muramyl-peptide adjuvants seem to trigger a specific receptor that stimulates rapid response (muramyl-peptides are found mainly in mycobacteria capsules, e.g., M. tuberculosis). Adjuvants like alum still have not been fully explained (see, e.g., E. DiGregorio et al., Curr Opin Immunol (2009) 21:339-45). Vaccines that work without adjuvants probably contain antigens that are sufficiently recognized by the innate system.
  3. What a bizarre (and wrong) idea. The FDA does not sell anything: its job is to make sure that the drugs (and food and cosmetics) that are sold in the US are safe and effective. If you claim that your product has drug-like effects, you are required to prove it. Frankly, "causing the release of CD34+ cells" sounds like a drug claim to me, and I'm surprised that the FDA has not already shut down the operation and imposed fines. You're confusing FDA approval with the difference between prescription and over-the-counter drugs. All drugs require FDA approval, whether you need a prescription or not. If a drug is OTC, it just means that it is considered safe enough not to require a doctor's advice. Actually, if you obtained FDA approval, you would have several years of exclusive rights to sell the product in the US (even without a patent). After that, you would face generic competition, just the same as any other drug. If you do not have a patent, then a generic drug company could start making your product tomorrow. I suspect that the only reason no generic company is making your product now is that they are only interested in making a real medication. As for the number of drugs that have been pulled due to side effects, I suspect that the number is far smaller than the number of "herbal remedies" and non-approved products that have no effect or have a negative effect. They just don't have FDA reporting requirements.
  4. GDG

    Human emotion

    Quite the opposite. Patients who have suffered damage to the emotional centers of the brain are typically unable to make any sort of decision. Without emotions, you are incapable of answering "What do you want to do?" and "What should you do next?". Channel your emotions, don't suppress them.
  5. THC (the active ingredient(s) in marijuana) binds neurotransmitter receptors in the brain (CB1 and CB2, at least) that normally react to anandamine. If I remember correctly, anandamine is implicated in the neural circuits involved in forgetting, and attenuating the response to stimuli. I don't know if there are conclusive studies, but I would think that chronic use of a compound that mimics a CNS neurotransmitter pretty much has to have a long-term effect. In the brain, pathways that are repeated stimulated get stronger and easier to activate (this is why we get better with practice). I'm not sure I'd want to repeatedly stimulate the "forgetting" pathway (I'm forgetful enough already ).
  6. The class of antibody involved in allergies is called IgE, but I think I see what you're proposing. There are a number of neurological disorders which are caused by a form (or forms) of autoimmune disease, including: Stiff person syndrome, Guillan-Barre syndrome, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, and neuromyotonia. If your hypothesis is that the body normally produces antibodies that react with neurotransmitter receptors, this is not too likely. Antibodies have properties other than just binding to an antigen. For example some classes of IgG activate complement, causing lysis and destruction of the cell to which the antibody attaches. Other IgG classes stimulate macrophages, inducing them to engulf and destroy the target. IgE antibodies have sequences that target mast cells, which release histamines and other chemicals when the IgE binds an antigen (Gesundheit!). There are a number of interesting interactions between the nervous system and the immune system, but the interaction I think you're proposing is considered pathological.
  7. You have an interesting idea there, but it won't work quite the way you think. The AChE inhibitor in the venom is most likely a protein, and your antibodies will specifically bind to the venom protein. Now, if the disorders you're interested in were caused by the presence of AChE inhibitors endogenously present in the body, and they had a close physical similarity to the venom AChE, the antibodies might help. However, your body (if healthy) generally generates antibodies to foreign proteins -- not proteins that you yourself make. Thus, if the snake venom AChE inhibitor is at all different from the (possible) endogenous human AChE inhibitor, your body is going to tend to make antibodies that are specific for the part that is different. Of course, the big assumption is that any of the neurological disorders are caused by endogenous AChE inhibitors: personally, I don't think that is very likely. Not impossible; just not likely to be the case.
  8. The "collective amount of past experiences" is probably better called "memory". Personally*, I think that creativity is (at least often is) a matter of linking two concepts that might not otherwise "go together". To me, the things that make me think "wow, that's creative" tend to be things that combine two or more really different ideas. Could you program a computer to randomly associate disparate concepts? Sure. However, to be perceived as really "creative", you'd probably need something that separated the better ideas from the random babble (e.g., keeping the "strawberry kiwi" and tossing the "perch cobbler") *By "personally" I mean that, no, I don't have a citation for this... As a patent attorney, I have occasion to think about this stuff from time to time.
  9. There is a pretty informative article on Lead Poisoning at Wikipedia. There is apparently no lower threshold.
  10. Cutting them into smaller pieces helps too. Potatoes are pretty dense globs of carbohydrate, and it takes a while for heat to transfer from the water through the potato all the way to the center. If you cut the potato into chunks, you can substantially reduce the distance the heat must travel, and thus reduce the cooking time. The smaller the piece, the quicker it should cook. Heat transfer is also a function of the temperature difference, which is why raising the boiling temperature (in a pressure cooker) makes it cook faster. You can buy pressure cookers at many cooking supply outlets, including Amazon.com.
  11. Apparently, there are people who lack the appendix congenitally. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged There's an interesting discussion regarding that in Wikipedia. IIRC, the appendix also has a particularly high density of Peyer's patches.
  12. Wikipedia has a pretty good illustration of bone structure.
  13. Not very much! The dosage is usually expressed in "units" ("U"), where 1 U is the LD50 when administered to a group of 18-22 g Swiss Webster mice. A typical dose for cosmetic purposes 30-100 U. Lethal dose for humans is estimated to be about 3000 U. The quantity of actual protein to make a U varies from formulation to formulation and batch. The original form came in a 100 U vial, containing 25 ng of botox. The (probably current) form is more potent: a 100 U vial contains only 4.8 ng. It is used not only for wrinkles and getting that smooth plastic visage, but also for strabismus (crossed eyes), some forms of dystonia, and related muscle disorders. This article has additional relevant information.
  14. The first problem is that, by inducing immunity against visceral adipose tissue, you run a great risk of also end up inducing auto-immunity against other tissues. Basically, iatrogenic lupus. The second problem is that inducing that amount of inflammation would be an intensely uncomfortable, possibly life-threatening, experience. You are essentially proposing to induce the equivalent of graft rejection. Using a blow torch instead of a knife...
  15. Well, a clinician will not be using Freund's: not approved for use in humans, and fairly nasty stuff. To quote Goding again: James W. Goding, "Monoclonal Antibodies: Principles and Practice" (1983 Academic Press) at p. 59.
  16. Excuse us if we don't take your word for it: this is a science forum, after all. There is a vast difference between being open minded, and accepting credulously anything proposed. "Most are doubters" for the excellent reason that there are many charlatans. Further, we understand statistics and the need for control groups, particularly where medical treatment is involved. If you take five people with flu, pulse them with electricity, and find that they recover from their infection in 4 days, you have proven exactly nothing. If you take ten people, treat five with electricity, and the other five with a simulated (but dead) electrode, there is an excellent chance that the control group will recover just as quickly as the treated group. However, even if the control group takes two days longer, you still have not proven anything, as ten people is too small a group for meaningful statistics. If you take a thousand people, divided into a control group and perhaps a couple of treatment groups at different voltages or currents, and find a statistically significant difference, then we would be paying more attention. For me, the statment at p. 34 of the e-book completely destroyed all credibility.
  17. My recollection is from an immunology course, years ago. The only text I have at hand is James W. Goding, "Monoclonal Antibodies: Principles and Practice" (1983 Academic Press) which states that (Goding at p. 58.) On reflection, anything in the blood will eventually end up in the spleen or lymphatic system anyway...
  18. Basically, you want the vaccine antigens to be washed into the lymphatic system, and taken up by dendritic cells. Much greater chance of that happening if you inject into the muscle. If injected IV, chances are that the antigens will be dispersed, and you won't have a concentration high enough to activate the immune system at any location.
  19. What makes you think that evolution has stopped? It is not as if we conducted an exhaustive survey of all species in the ocean in 1909, and another today. In fact, it is probably not possible to perform such a survey, even today. If environmental conditions in the ocean have changed over the past 100,000 years, it is likely that new species evolved to move into those new niches. You are probably not going to see any dinosaur animals evolving from the ocean, as there are very efficient sharks already occupying that niche. Same for apes. Was Darwin in his right mind? Yes.
  20. You are very unlikely to see a connection between cancer and human vaccines. All human vaccines require prior approval by the FDA (at least in the US), and absence of cancer causation is one of the things that must be demonstrated before approval. Veterinary vaccines probably have different standards, and there are probably different standards for what can be used in pets as opposed to food animals/livestock. It is very unlikely that the protein or antigen component of the vaccine would cause cancer. Any protein that is used is typically first denatured in some way, e.g., by treatment with formaldehyde, truncation, etc. It is possible that the adjuvant, if present, could stimulate cancer or a reaction that looks like cancer. The adjuvant is an optional component found in some vaccine formulations, designed to increase the subject's immune response to the antigen. There are some antigens that just do not sufficiently stimulate the immune response on their own: the adjuvant essentially acts like a tag, labeling the antigen as "Hey look here -- foreign invaders!" Adjuvants frequently used in research include Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) and Incomplete Freund's Adjuvant (IFA). IFA is made from a fraction of the cellular wall of mycobacteria (like TB bacteria), the active part of which is muramic acid dipeptide. CFA is IFA emulsified with mineral oil. In lab procedures, one would typically use CFA for the first immunization, and IFA for booster shots. It is possible for CFA and/or IFA to cause granuloma formation at the injection site (which might look like a tumor to someone who is not doing a tissue biopsy), and they are definitely not approved for use in humans.
  21. It is still not certain that amyloid plaques are the causative agents. Recent work at Genentech suggests that it may be the N-terminal part of the amyloid precursor protein that actually causes the damage (by its interaction with "death receptor 6").
  22. It consists in part of dead cells, but also includes proteins and stuff secreted by the white cells. See Wikipedia.
  23. Yep. It is common to see designations such as 2S,4R-2,4-dichlorohexane.
  24. Your body responds to foreign objects with inflammation. The swelling reduces circulation to the area, which minimizes spreading of any accompanying bacteria. Your macrophages will attempt to break down and digest the splinter itself, along with any bacteria in the area. Other lymphocytes (mainly T8+ cells and natural killer cells) are also attracted to the inflammed site, and kill bacteria. Inflammation also causes an increase in temperature (which is why you have a fever with a systemic infection), which slows down bacterial replication.
  25. No, it is more likely that the foreign proteins would be engulfed and digested by the microglia (like macrophages).
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