Posted on 07/17/2009 7:19:24 AM PDT by truthandlife
Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published in Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend edition.
The ground-breaking medication, developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief Scientific Officer at Cleveland BioLabs - may have far-reaching implications on the balance of power in the world, as states capable of providing their citizens with protection against radiation will enjoy a significant strategic advantage vis-à-vis their rivals.
For Israel, the discovery marks a particularly dramatic development that could deeply affect the main issue on the defense establishment's agenda: Protection against a nuclear attack by Iran or against "dirty bomb" attacks by terror groups.
Gudkov's discovery may also have immense implications for cancer patients by enabling doctors to better protect patients against radiation. Should the new medication enable cancer patients to be treated with more powerful radiation, our ability to fight the disease could greatly improve.
Dramatic test results The process that led up to the medical innovation dates back to 2003, when Professor Gudkov came up with the idea of using protein produced in bacteria found in the intestine to protect cells from radiation.
Gudkov recounted an experiment he held with two groups of mice.
"We exposed both groups to lethal radioactive radiation," he said. "All the mice in the control group died within a short period of time. A few days later, when I approached the cage with the mice that received the protein, I could see that they're ok, that they're alive. They survived. It's hard to describe the joy all of us felt. We realized that finally, after so many years and so many experiments and frustrations, we made a breakthrough that may save the lives of millions."
Prof. Gudkov published the findings of the protein experiment in Science, the world's leading scientific journal; however, the discovery of the medication was kept secret until now, while Gudkov and his associated waited for the results of two series of critical tests examining the medication's effectiveness and safety.
The first series of tests included experiments on more than 650 monkeys. Each test featured two groups of monkeys exposed to radiation, but only one group was given the medication. The radiation dosage was equal to the highest dosage sustained by humans as result of the Chernobyl mishap.
The experiment's results were dramatic: 70% of the monkeys that did not receive the cure died, while the ones that survived suffered from the various maladies associated with lethal nuclear radiation. However, the group that did receive the anti-radiation shot saw almost all monkeys survive, most of them without any side-effects. The tests showed that injecting the medication between 24 hours before the exposure to 72 hours following the exposure achieves similar results.
Another test on humans, who were given the drug without being exposed to radiation, showed that the medication does not have side-effects and is safe. Prof. Gudkov's company now needs to expand the safety tests, a process expected to be completed by mid-2010 via a shortened test track approved for bio-defense drugs. Should experiments continue at the current rate, the medication is estimated to be approved for use by the FDA within a year or two.
'Stable, safe, and easy to inject'
The company's subcontractor in Europe is already prepared to embark on mass production. Meanwhile, emergency regulations in Israel allow the government to purchase drugs on short notice, even if they are still in the process of being approved. Notably, the medication in question is not a vaccine, but rather, a preventative drug administered via one or several shots.
The medication works by suppressing the "suicide mechanism" of cells hit by radiation, while enabling them to recover from the radiation-induced damages that prompted them to activate the suicide mechanism in the first place.
Prof. Gudkov heads a group of Jewish-American scientists and has cooperated with an Israeli researcher and Israeli investors. A large part of the revolutionary medication's development process was funded by the US Defense and Health departments, which thus far earmarked $40 million to the project. About two weeks ago, the US Defense Department announced that in light of the successful tests, it will continue to fund the project.
The Israeli scientist involved in the research, Dr. Elena Feinstein, made Aliyah to Israel in 1985 and for many years served as a cancer researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Dr. Feinstein met Prof. Gudkov while they worked together in Moscow and was among the founders of the company, serving as its deputy director for some time.
Today, Feinstein works for an Israel company engaged in cancer research and continues to cooperate with Gudkov. Referring to the innovative medication, she says: "Both its effectiveness and safety had been proven. It is stable, safe, and easy to inject."
Both Feinstein and Gudkov stress that the innovative drug does not provide 100% protection against radioactive damage. However, should the discovery announced by the scientists meet all the required tests and permits, it may change the 21st Century.
Perhaps just in time....
Amazing if true. An incredible breakthrough that actually blows my mind.
The cure has ben around for decades.
It involves staying away from radioactive materials and devices.
This is incredible. What a discovery!
Snake oil sales reaches Israel.
Radiation damage is done at the cellular DNA level. Those streaming Neutrons blast through us as if we weren’t there, and when they do, they lay waste to whatever they hit. Now, if you aren’t burned by the blast, your cells are effectively disrupted by the radiation. The radiation causes the cells to mutate (disrupted DNA) and many cells to simply die. Hence the nausea, loss of hair, weakness and slow death. Let’s not mention the exponentially higher rates of Leukemia, cancer and other health problems.
Sorry, don’t buy this anymore than Super Dave Osborn’s Bullet-Proof car polish.
Ynet news is sometimes like Russia’s Pravda.
First a solution to the bee population going down and now this. ISRAEL maybe one of the top if not the top contributor to solutions for the world’s scientific and medical problems.
I’d believe in time travel, reincarnation, Nigerian bank accounts, and unicorns crapping Skittles in the laps of virgins in conservative Haight-Ashbury, before I’d believe this.
I would guess this is an example of a Jewish contribution to the World.
Islam’s contribution will be providing a Test Scenario.
The medication works by suppressing the "suicide mechanism" of cells hit by radiation, while enabling them to recover from the radiation-induced damages that prompted them to activate the suicide mechanism in the first place.
Yes, radiation breaks down the DNA molecule! It is irreversible! You cannot ‘un-boil’ an egg!
An analogy with Justice Roberts: “How does one stop discriminating based on race...stop discriminating based on race”. Similarly -— how does one stop (recover) from radiation sickness .....by stopping exposure to radiation!
You’re right, of course, but the article suggests this “miracle cure” is in fact something you take beforehand, some sort of protein that binds itself temporarily to the most vulnerable parts of the body’s cells.
This suggests a rather nasty scenario: An entity planning to release radiation in some form or another “inoculates” a select few and leaves the rest vulnerable.....
Perhaps part of a disinformation campaign aimed at Iran.
Your cure wouldn’t work if a neutron bomb were detonated in some US city, would it?
The timing of this story is suspicious.
Seems like a good way to allow mutations normally killed off by
our bodies to survive and mutiply!
Did you miss the part of my reply where I said "It involves staying away from radioactive materials and devices."??
If it’s true, this could have a profound impact on space travel as well. From “The Universe” the other night, I believe that someone on a 20 minutes spacewalk receives as much radiation as someone standing on earth gets in 6 months.
A dubious ping.
Not necessarily. The cell has sophisticated DNA repair mechanisms that can repair broken strands and correct errors.
He’s also Jewish. BTW, do you know that his real last name’s Einstein?
Besides, it would lead to lowering the self-esteem of the Muslims!
You left out “Having radioactive materials and devices stay away from you”.
If this does work, then the last argument the damn greenies have against nuke powe just went out the window..hell, we just stockpile this stuff in areas close to power plants, if there’s a leak, we distribute it. Problem solved.
Not necessarily. The cell has sophisticated DNA repair mechanisms that can repair broken strands and correct errors.
____________________________________________-
99% Irreversible?!?!?!?!
C’mon, think about it——why use 650 monkeys? 650?
The medication works by suppressing the "suicide mechanism" of cells hit by radiation, while enabling them to recover from the radiation-induced damages that prompted them to activate the suicide mechanism in the first place.
Isn't cancer a mutated cell that has it's "suicide mechanism" disabled? If so, isn't this drug a form of injectable cancer? I'm just a wee bit suspicous of news stories like this. If you have to take it before the radiation, then what are the side effects? If you have to take it before the radiation, and there are no side effects; then haven't you then created a class of people who are more 'priviledged'? If one side feels that they can survive a nuclear counter-attack, isn't a nuclear response, or first strike, now more likely to occur?
No, I didn't. It's implied in "staying away from radioactive materials and devices."
This was my initial thought. I’m gonna retain my skepticism until someone explains to me how a bacteria can defy physics.
boy, if this is disinformation it is awfully clever...
Staying away from radioactive exposure does not cure the effects of radiation exposure. Just like staying away from measles does not cure measles. Cure and prevention are two separate things.
Why wear a seatbelt in your car? Just stay away from car-crashes! /dustymoment
Sounds like some human testing is in order...
Remember Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football in the ‘70’s: “Look at that monkey go...”
Wonder if “Howard's monkey” was one of the 650???? :-)
You really don't grasp sarcasm, do you?
Oh, and don't put words in my keyboard that I didn't type.
Yep, and I am a microbiologist(well senior year anyways).
They say they in effect are preventing radiation induced cell apoptosis yet without apoptosis cells have simply no growth control mechanism. They might as well have stated that they have found a cure for death as well since apoptosis is also key in organism death.
Hmm.. The radiation in space, and similar to that of a “bomb” that we worry about, is NOT ions, Or Neutrons, it is high energy photons, and high speed particles that will be give up some of their energy as they pass through the body of the astronaut, or civilian. The energy they give up breaks apart molecules inside the body. Some of these molecules are DNA, messenger RNA, critical “proteins”. etc. Many of these disrupted cells just die. If too many die, the astronaut, or civiilian dies. Some of the disrupted cells don’t die, but change how they operate, and may become cancerous.
In this light, and as the article suggests, this miracle protien, will not 100% protect you from all lethal dosages of radiation, but it is effective against most common levels, associated with space travel, and other forms of cancer therapy. Your skeptisim is warranted, to some degree; however, this science should not be dismissed out of hand. It is promising news, and if all the claims are valid and peer reviewed, It will, like the article says, change the future of mankind. It will allows us to go to Mars, or Utopia, or Titan, AND, it will allow us to effectively push back the bane of humanity, and cancer itself.
This is an inc redible discovery, and if nothing else, it give humanity new hope. Hope that most people didn’t even know they needed.
D-
“Sorry, don’t buy this anymore than Super Dave Osborn’s Bullet-Proof car polish.”
I am with you, for this to work you would have to prevent cellular damage or you would have to have VERY rapid regeneration.... preferably without becoming the S.T.A.L.K.E.R http://www.amazon.com/S-T-L-K-E-R-Shadow-Chernobyl-Pc/dp/B0001X5YN4/ref=tag_stp_st_edpp_url .
This would have implications, if true, far beyond that of simply preventing/limiting the effects of ionizing radiation.
What? I rike it!
"DNA damage, due to environmental factors and normal metabolic processes inside the cell, occurs at a rate of 1,000 to 1,000,000 molecular lesions per cell per day." The vast majority of these are repaired by the cell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_repair
And just for the record, Super Dave's Bullet-Proof Car Polish actually works, keeps your vehicle looking showroom-new, and does not cause hair loss or leukemia in lab animals unless ingested in large amounts.
KB
Legal Counsel and Maintenance Engineer
YNET & SDB-PCP, Inc.
If this actually works like they say, it’s Nobel prize time.
It would be bigger than Salk’s cure for polio.
For cancer to take place, it takes a cascade of errors in the DNA, not simply a degradation of the cellular death mechanism, although this is part of it.
Sometimes the body's reaction to an injury or infection does far more damage than the original insult. This is the case in anaphylaxis. This may also be the case here. The actual damage to cells caused by mild to moderate radiation may be repairable if the cell didn't peremptorily self-destruct.
But would this count as a new and experimental and expensive treatment under obamacare?
Can’t have it then. Too bad for you.
Sounds like Israel may be needing this sooner rather than later.
Iran may yet inadvertently solve the Palestinian problem in Israel. Another case of the ROP killing members of the ROP.
My point is, when you don’t have a choice, the new cure is quite desirable.
I'm honestly not arguing the point, I'm having a little fun on this thread.
However, all foolishness aside, let me state this: I am dubious about a LOT of these so-called modern miracle cures until there is a much larger, and much more verifiable sample size that supports the announcement. Since the late 60s, biomed researchers know that those who make the initial press release about a new cure/treatment/medicine, whatever, get the research grants.
The more optimistic they can make it sound, the more grant money they get. Today, far too many new drugs/treatments that have FDA approval are being pulled off the market because they have very negative side effects that don't justify continued use.
In the case of a cure for radiation sickness, I hope it's true and I hope that it is NEVER needed!!! But, right now, I want to see much more proof that this is a valid, verifiable cure and not just another episode of "Panhandling for Research Grants".
Please, don't tell me.
Please.
This is a tremendous development. One of the huge obstacles to traveling to Mars has been how to protect the travelers from an intense solar flare. This answers that problem beautifully. As the article points out, it would give a treatment to those affected by an atomic weapon who had not been incinerated. Radiation area workers are constantly monitored, and usually don’t get damaging quantities of radiation, but having this near at hand would eliminate a lot of stress for those workers. Indeed, if this proves as effective as it now seems possible, and has no nasty side effects, it might even allow much longer periods of working in high radiation areas, resulting in huge times savings for repairs and upgrades of equipment in accelerators and reactors. It would also provide a way that the unreasonable fear of atomic reactors might be addressed! Cancer and many other medical uses WILL be affected, and possibly other materials procedures would become feasible.
Congratulations to the scientists, and let us all hope that followup experiments pan out and show it to be without limiting side effects.
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