

Artificial Spleen Removes Ebola, HIV Viruses and Toxins from Blood Using Magnets - WestCoastJustin
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/artificial-spleen-removes-ebola-hiv-viruses-toxins-blood-using-magnets-1465585

======
mikezawitkowski
It's a shame that the message was lost when we shot the messenger and didn't
upvote this topic. The writing quality aside, even if this were FICTION, the
idea of using 'nanobeads' or magnets to bind to and extract an undesirable
element from a target environment was the eye opener for me. What other ways
can this/has this concept been applied, inside or outside of biology?

Even if the DARPA grant leads to a dead end, there's bound to be some
interesting side effects to pursuing this. I wish them luck and will be on the
lookout for more related articles—even poorly written ones.

------
kjs3
> Artificial Spleen Removes Ebola, HIV Viruses and Toxins From Blood

The reservoir for HIV isn't the blood; it's the brain, lymph nodes & bone
marrow. So cleaning blood isn't a cure (it's been tried many times).

> able to clear toxins, fungi and deadly pathogens such as Ebola from human
> blood

Except when it can't. Like how does it pick active virus out of a living
T-cell without destroying all the non-infected T-cells?

> When antibiotics are used to kill them, dying viruses release toxins

Antibiotics don't kill viruses.

> dying viruses release toxins in the blood that begin to multiply quickly

Toxins aren't alive and don't multiply.

> rats that had been infected by toxins and viruses such as E. coli

E.coli isn't a virus or a toxin.

It's almost as if someone wanted to create and Onion-esque parody of
breathless "wonder medicine" articles that shamefully misrepresent the
research. I wonder if the researchers can sue IBT for damaging their
professional reputation.

------
ttronicm
That's the worst science writing I've ever seen. To help sooth your eyes:
[http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/166](http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/166)

~~~
mikezawitkowski
Thanks ttronicm for sharing this. Here's another related release about
additional funding from DARPA:
[http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/108/wyss-
institute-...](http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/108/wyss-institute-
awarded-darpa-contract-to-further-advance-sepsis-therapeutic-device)

