'Lego' Approach Thwarts Anthrax Toxin 78
NewScientist is reporting that scientists have discovered complex nanoscale structures that have successfully protected rats from anthrax. From the article: "The technique relies on using tiny 'peptide' molecules, stuck onto one large molecule, which bind to toxins and prevent them from causing damage. They do this in much the same way that two Lego bricks might fit together - with several studs from the binding molecule slotting into, and so blocking, the sites on a toxin molecule which are needed to cause damage."
Re:I've always wondered about the whole block thin (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, it can happen. Look for a example at recent drug trial [bbc.co.uk] incident in London, where a therapeutic antibody that had good results in animals (and apparently mild side-effects in monkeys) had dramatic and potentially fatal side-effects in human volunteers.
The effects are rarely that dramatic, as the worst effects are usually discovered in animal trials. (For added safety, at least two species are used, one rodent and one non-rodent.) However, unwanted side effects are the rule rather than the exception, and the only really reliable way to find out so far is through tests on human volunteers. Most drugs do fail in these trials!
Actually, even the drugs that do pass the clinical test stage and are approved rarely work for all patients. The FDA is happy if the drug helps a sufficiently large fraction of patients, and does not real harm except in exceptional cases. It is the average cost-benefit that counts, not the result for the individual patient, which is at this moment often impossible to predict.
For there is genetic patient-to-patient variation among humans as well, not to mention genetic variation among pathogens, and a drug that fits the protein in the body of patient A may fail to do so in patient B. And a drug that does A and B no harm may have fatal effects in patient C.
Genetic targeting of drugs has already caused a controversy around NitroMed [nitromed.com] BiDil [bidil.com], a heart medicine that is specifically effective for black patients — admittting that few Americans are of pure genetic "African" or "Caucasian" stock. The culturally acceptable (but scientifically dubious) solution is to allow patients to "self-identify" as black and therefore potential users.
For the future much hope is put in "personalized medicine", giving the patient a genetic analysis first to determine whether a drug would be really effective — or would have serious side effects. However, this too has obvious cultural and moral problems attached to it.