Cruising Charlie

Surprises for tomorrow!  Today you get Charlie's ears flapping in the wind.

MIT Cures HIV?

Common Cold Virus

Sponsored by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, with previous funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and Director of Defense Research & Engineering (now the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering), researchers at MIT may have found the cure for many viruses, including HIV. 

Hepatitis C

HIV

Fifteen viruses to be exact, including the cold virus (rhinovirus), strains of swine flu (H1N1 influenza), adenoviruses (which cause symptoms ranging from common cold syndrome to pneumonia, croup, and bronchitis), the dreaded stomach virus (reovirus), a polio virus, hepatitis C virus, dengue fever virus (breakbone fever), several members of hemorrhagic fever (arenavirus and bunyavirus), and highly lethal viruses such as Ebola or smallpox that might be used in bioterrorist attacks, hence the funding by the DoD.

MIT's new wonder drug (more virus warfare, or broad-spectrum antiviral approach, as they call it) is called DRACO (Double-stranded RNA [dsRNA] Activated Caspase Oligomerizer) and it was found to be nontoxic in 11 different cell types representing various species (e.g., humans, monkeys, mice) and organ types (e.g., heart, lung, liver, kidney). There have already been preliminary lab tests done on mice in which not only were they cured of a given virus but in some cases were saved from certain death; for example, when given a lethal dose of swine flu. In order to understand how the virus kryptonite DRACO works you must first understand a little about viruses and how they work. Get ready for a biochemistry and genetics crash course.

A virus is merely a set of genetic instructions, usually RNA, surrounded by a protein coat or envelope. All viruses have some type of protein on the outside coat that identifies a viable host cell. This protein attaches the virus to the membrane of the host cell. Some enveloped viruses can dissolve right through the cell membrane of the host because both the virus envelope and the cell membrane are made of lipids and because they do not carry out any biochemical reactions of its own, viruses can live for years or longer outside a host cell. Some viruses can "sleep" inside the genetic instructions of the host cells for years before reproducing. For example, a person infected with HIV can live without showing symptoms of AIDS for years, but they can still spread the virus to others.

Unlike human cells or bacteria, viruses do not contain the chemical machinery (enzymes) needed to carry out the chemical reactions for life. Instead, viruses carry only one or two enzymes that decode their genetic instructions. Therefore a virus must have a host cell in which to live and make more viruses. Outside of a host cell, viruses cannot function. Cold and flu viruses will attack cells that line the respiratory or digestive tracts. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, attacks the T-cells of the immune system.

I'm sure you already know the drill. You're at a crowded party and someone near you sneezes. You inhale a rhinovirus particle and it attaches to cells lining the sinuses in your nose. The virus attacks these cells and rapidly reproduces new viruses. The host cells break, and new viruses spread into your bloodstream and also into your lungs. Because you have lost cells lining your sinuses, fluid can flow into your nasal passages and give you a runny nose. Viruses in the fluid that drips down your throat attack the cells lining your throat and give you a sore throat. Viruses in your bloodstream can attack muscle cells and cause you to have muscle aches. Now you feel like you have the flu, but you are really in the grips of the common cold.

In computer terms a virus is a small bit of code that attaches itself to a program such as a spreadsheet. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs). Biological viruses reproduce by transcription into viral mRNA (messenger RNA) molecules. RNA codons (basically the 1s and 0s that relate to the building blocks, amino acids) are read by your biological machinery and turned into polypeptides, or strings of amino acids, through a process called translation. Fold these polypeptides and you get proteins. As the host cell's ribosomes attach to the viral mRNA molecules, the mRNAs are translated into viral structural proteins and viral enzymes.

Essentially, DRACO is a protein with one part that binds to viral dsRNA (double stranded RNA) and a second domain that induces apoptosis, or cell suicide, when two or more DRACOs crosslink on the same dsRNA. If viral dsRNA is present inside a cell, DRACO will bind to the dsRNA and BAM! dead. If viral dsRNA is not present inside the cell, DRACO will not crosslink and everything stays rosey. DRACO works on the assumption that most viruses have double-(dsRNA) or single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) genomes and produce long (greater than ~21–23 base pairs) dsRNA helices during transcription and replication. Uninfected mammalian cells generally do not produce long dsRNA, so DRACO attacks cells that exhibit at least 30–50 base pairs. DRACO can be fused with proven protein transduction tags, including a sequence from the HIV TAT protein, the related protein transduction domain 4 (PTD), and polyarginine (ARG). These tags have been shown to carry large cargo molecules into both the cytoplasm and the nucleus of all cell types in vitro and in vivo, even across the blood-brain barrier. Because DRACO doesn't trigger within normal cells it rapidly heals a viral infection while minimizing side effects on the patient.

Ideally, you want the top left and bottom right images of each quad to be the same.

Clearly, this is a great step in Medicine even if the general public never sees it. I wonder, though, how they plan to administer said DRACO. I'm assuming by intramuscular injection, or a shot, which brings up the question, "How long will it take before all viruses are dead?" or asks the sick person, "How long before I feel better?"

Also, and I feel silly thinking it, but this reminds me of that movie I Am Legend in which most of the population becomes crazed and vampire-like after the world is unable to stop the spread of a virus, manufactured by man to cure cancer, mutates and spreads like wildfire. 

Plus, I don't think I can shoot Charlie when he becomes infected.

Evil Toy Traps Dog

Charlie's new favorite toy is the bathtub grid disk.

Why he loves this, I don't know.  I suspect part of it is the clanking sound that it makes on the tub floor.  Our grid isn't screwed down, by the way. Sorry to viciously crush all the Battle Cat, or Pinky and the Brain, doggie daydreams out there.  

Charlie has always loved the shower, often he waits outside the curtain like Norman in the movie Psycho. OK, maybe not exactly like that.  Because, you know, that would be a little creepy and Charlie might just have to find a new home with nice new people that he could murder.

So it wasn't that surprising when I heard the grid clacking in the bathroom.  A little while later, though, I heard whimpering and went to check it out.  This is what I found:

Favorite Low Fantasy Series

This the second part of my recommended Fantasy Series.  This post highlights Low Fantasy. Low Fantasy is very appealing to many people because it's rooted in our working world but with characters who often have special, supernatural abilities. This familiarity often makes it suitable to fantasy newbies who don't won't to feel like a weird nerd (but secretly are).

Click here to visit my High Fantasy post.

I have listed the first book in each series, along with the series name in parentheses. On both lists, High and Low, the quoted plot summaries are from the back cover of the books. Here we go, in no certain order.

The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks (Night Angel Trilogy)
"For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint. But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death."

For once a book's cover is a good summary. That pretty much sums this book up. I originally bought this book because it was featured so heavily in Barnes & Noble. I thoroughly enjoyed the easy murdering, quick-whitted characters, and political intrigues although Kylar and Doll Face's relationship frustrates me.



The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicle)
"So begins the tale of Kvothe—from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But The Name of the Wind is so much more—for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe's legend."

This is mostly a first-person narrative of Kvothe, a young man who grows to be one of the most notorious magicians his world has ever seen.  You pick up Kvothe in disguise as an innkeeper and through the storytelling of his life to a renown historian learn about his sometimes misadventures that helped to boost his reputation to something more than human.  I have to say, while starved to finish the fantastically written first book. I was disappointed by the second book "Wise Man's Fear."  It just seemed like major story ideas, some unnecessary, pieced together roughly and just didn't flow well.  Just my opinion though.  Let me know what you think.

Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn (Tales of the Otori)

"It begins with the legend of a nightingale floor in a black-walled fortress-a floor that sings in alarm at the step of an assassin. It will take true courage and all the skills of an ancient Tribe for one orphaned youth named Takeo to discover the magical destiny that awaits him...across the nightingale floor."

After his village is viciously attacked and family killed, Takeo is adopted by an assassin guild.  They help teach him skills that aid him along his path of revenge. He has to learn to cross a famed nightingale floor that serves as an alarm system to a very powerful man.  Interestingly, these floors actually existed in real life as security measures in Japan, often in temples and palaces.  The wooden floor boards were designed so that the nails would screech against jackets or plates creating loud chirping sounds warning the inhabitants of a intruder.

A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire)

"Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones."

Well, I can't really explain it any better than that.  This series of books is heavy, HEAVY, on medieval type political intrigue.  I have to admit that the first time I read "Game of Thrones" I didn't really like it, mainly because Martin kills off the first five or six "main" characters in a very short time.  I just couldn't bring myself to attach any feeling to any of the other characters who, I felt, might die off at any moment.  It is a good series though and has become even more popular with the advent of the HBO TV series.

Storm Front - Jim Butcher (Dresden Files)

mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting. Magic. It can get a guy killed."

I love these books, all of them.  You can read them stand alone but plot lines do build throughout. My favorite is probably Summer Knight.  I love Harry's sarcastic, just shy of poverty, love torn and confused, devil may care character.  I love Bob; I love Michael; I love the physically exhausting, gritty magic. These books make me laugh out loud. Read them.  A side note: Do not watch the Dresden Files TV show.  While the books are great, the TV show on the Sci Fi Channel (Syfy?) sucked.

Favorite High Fantasy Series

So, I was reorganizing my office bookshelf, which was in dire need, this morning and it got me to thinking. I should really share my favorite fantasy book series. I told myself that I would limit it to 5, only five. Then, I couldn't narrow it down. My internal argument went something like this: "But I love this one too. You can't list every book you have! But, but, this one is different; it's high fantasy and that one is low fantasy. You can't really compare them. You can't list every book you own! OK, fine, I'll make 2 lists. Happy? Yeah...I guess that'll work." My inner voices often fight. That's normal right? Right?!

And then there were two, one list for High Fantasy which in my opinion is defined as either having an innately different physical world, the workings of its physics not its appearance, than ours, or having so much magic or fantasy elements that it seems different, i.e. Harry Potter. The second for Low Fantasy which operates primarily in our working world but with characters that often have special, supernatural abilities. I have listed the first book in each series, along with the series name in parentheses. On both lists, High and Low, the quoted plot summaries are from the back cover of the books.

Click here to visit my Low Fantasy post.

I love both types. I was 16 or 17 years old before I read my first High Fantasy book, which is just sad really. My boyfriend at the time was kind of obsessed with The Wheel of Time series, and with good reason. I picked it up so that I could seem cool and have something to talk about with him, although talking is not always at the top of a adolescent boy's list of priorities. Nevertheless, this simple act, in plain terms, rocked my world. To this day the High Fantasy genre is my go-to reading subject. Here are my favorites in no certain order.

Eye of the World - Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time) - Brandon Sanderson finished this series after Jordan's unfortunate death.
"The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow."

The Eye of the World revolves around a group of young people from Emond's Field in The Two Rivers - Rand al'Thor, Matrim Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere and Nynaeve al'Meara. As a matter of fact, the whole series revolves around these characters. Basically, minions of the Dark One force the central three, Rand, Mat, and Perrin, to confront their destinies, often with the aid (or manipulation) of mages, known as Aes Sedai, to hopefully save the world from being destroyed.



Furies of Calderon - Jim Butcher (Codex Alera)
"In the realm of Alera, where people bond with the furies--elementals of earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal--fifteen-year-old Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. But when his homeland erupts in chaos--when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies-- Tavi's simple courage will turn the tides of war."

There are several central characters, Amara who is training to become a royal spy; Bernard who leads a town, or steadholt; Doroga, along with daughter Kitai, who is leader of the Marat, a barbarian race; and of course Tavi, the primary hero of this series. The story goes back and forth between their lives until they meet up. This series is so good; the rich character development, relatable conflict and inner struggle, seamless intertwining of plots, character growth, ugh so good. I'll be reading this if you need me.



Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance Chronicles)
"Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world. No one expected them to be heroes. Least of all, them."

The novels, based on a series of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game modules created by Weis and Hickman, take place on the fantasy world of Krynn where the population once worshiped the True Gods, a pantheon unique to the Dragonlance saga. At some point in history the True Gods abandoned the world and those in it. The world is just starting to recover from the loss of the True Gods when a group sprung up seeking to replace them, the Seekers. This book begins with the return of a group of friends, consisting of Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff, who previously went their own ways and pledged to return in five years. Kitiara Uth Matar, the half sister of the twins Caramon and Raistlin, was supposed to be there as well, but only sent a mysterious note. The Companions discover that the meet-up village has been taken over by the Seekers who are in collaboration with the Dragon Highlords for the conquest of the continent of Ansalon.


The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks (The Shannara Series)
"Living in peaceful Shady Vale, Shea Ohmsford knew little of the troubles that plagued the rest of the world. Then the giant, forbidding Allanon revealed that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord was plotting to destory the world. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness was the Sword of Shannara, which could only be used by a true heir of Shannara—Shea being the last of the bloodline, upon whom all hope rested. Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of Evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea fled, drawing the Skull Bearer after him…"

The first book in this series interweaves two major plots into a fictional world called the Four Lands. One follows the protagonist Shea Ohmsford on his quest to obtain the Sword of Shannara and confront the Warlock Lord, the antagonist, with it, while the other shadows Prince Balinor Buckhannah's attempt to oust his insane brother Palance from the throne of Callahorn while the country and its capital, Tyrsis, come under attack from overwhelming armies of the Warlock Lord. I'm always reminded of a soaring, lifting feeling when thinking about this series. While dark elements and frustration are clearly present, this series maintains a solid optimistic feel which is not quite naive in nature, but in a good way.


The Sorcerer's Stone - JK Rowling (Harry Potter Series)
"Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team...He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and had never worn a cloak of invisibility. All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys...But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place...[where] he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything...but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if only he can survive the encounter."

I distinctly remember sitting in a college Lit class and being assigned this book as mandatory reading. Brazenly, I raised my hand and asked, "Isn't Harry Potter a children's book?" Murmurs of agreement echoed through the room. "Just read it," the professor responded. He was right; it's well written, entertaining, and relevant at any age. While I can't remember the man's name who introduced me to these books, they have become my go-to favorites for when I'm feeling crappy. They always seem to cheer me up and being such light reads, I can easily finish one of them in a day or so. For that I thank him.