Posted on 04/11/2008 6:20:19 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Bacteria tails could protect against 'dirty' bomb
13:55 11 April 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Debora MacKenzie
A drug made out of Salmonella can protect mice and monkeys from high doses of radiation. It might help protect rescuers who have to enter a radioactive area after attack with a nuclear or "dirty" bomb, and also cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.
People die of radiation sickness when radiation kills cells lining the gut, as well as those in the bone marrow that gives rise to vital blood cells. The cells die because radiation activates the natural programme of cell death, apoptosis.
Andrei Gudkov and colleagues at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, reasoned that turning off apoptosis could offer a way to combat radiation sickness, and one way to do that is by activating an immune signaling chemical called NF-κB.
Oddly, the flagella of benign Salmonella bacteria that normally live in the intestine can do this, as they like to keep the gut cells they nestle against alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Ping!
Throw away my potassium iodide?
People who eat raw chicken will survive WWIII!
KI won’t protect you from radiation.
Not flu, but interesting...ping
That just gives me the creeps.
Different mechanism. The iodine flushes out a radioactive isotope of iodine common in radioactive fallout that otherwise lodges in the thyroid and causes further problems down the road.
My understanding is that it saturates the thyroid so that it will not absorb of the radioactive iodine. i.e. a totally wet sponge will not absorb any additional water.
The gene for NF-kB is transcribed to mRNA and made into a protein that is capable of binding the promoter region of other genes in order to recruit RNA polymerase and ‘turn on’ its target genes. It is usually held in check by I-kB (inhibitor kappa B) until a signal transduction cascade removes I-kB from NF-kB and then NF-kB moves to the cell nucleus where it can perform its activity.
That sounds familiar now that you say it.
A short time ago, they announced a technique to get the ordinary food preservatives BHA and BHT into human cells, that would prevent a lot of the damage from ionizing radiation that results in radiation poisoning.
That is, think of radiation like light, different from radioactive particles, which are the substance that gives off the light.
If you get radioactive particles on or in you, they keep giving off radiation until you get rid of them, or they decay. But the radiation itself is either shining on you, or it isn’t, like a flashlight. An X-Ray, for example, will not make you radioactive. Any damage it does will either be while it is shining on you, or shortly thereafter.
Typically the damage, the radiation poisoning, is cause by a radioactive particle hitting another particle inside the cells of your body. When it does so, it creates a chemical change, turning a stable molecule into an unstable one, that reacts with other parts of the cell by damaging them. These are one type of what are sometimes called “free radicals”.
BHA and BHT tend to neutralize free radicals, and so protect the cells from the effects of ionizing radiation. But cells do not normally uptake BHA or BHT, so the big discovery was coming up with a way to get them into the cells.
Importantly, the chemical reaction of free radicals happens quickly after radiation exposure, so you have to have the BHA and BHT preservatives in you *before* you are exposed.
Any side-effects from having them inside one's body?
If you are so sick within three days of exposure that your hair falls out and you can’t eat, you will die. If you are not that sick your odds of survival are better.
Quite a bit of information here:
Potassium Iodide as a Thyroid Blocking Agent in Radiation Emergencies
http://www.fda.gov/cder/Guidance/4825fnl.htm
No. The potassium iodide protects your thyroid by saturating it with safe iodine. That leaves nowhere for the radioactive iodine to bind.
I've endured 3000 rads of radiation delivered 300 rads at a time through my gut. The docs did a blood draw before each session to make sure I had enough bone marrow and blood to survive the next round. Each exposure leaves you barfing for 4 to 6 hours. After 1200 rads, you develop diarrhea from the assault on the lining of your intestines. When the hair falls out, it just brushes off as if it was never attached. It takes about a year to return after the exposure.
Before the treatment, I could roller skate for 5 hours without being tired. After the treatment, I made it around the floor 3 times and was exhausted. Ten years after the treatment, I was able to skate around Miramar Lake 3 times (15 miles) in 66 minutes. I was nearly normal two years after the treatment.
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=10516
Here’s more information. Please note that DARPA is involved.
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