Showing posts with label drug. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drug. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Alcohol and Tobacco are more Fatal than Cannabis, LSD and Ecstasy

This is the latest drug list revised by Britain's drug experts. It reveals the misconceptions we have of alcohol and tobacco being the least dangerous out of all drugs other than Heroine and Cocaine.

They tested 20 different drugs and scored the effects caused to the body. The results were surprising and shown in the graph provided.

"A team of 29 psychiatrists took part in the the study to classify all drugs into nine groups that were analyzed on the physical harm, addiction and social danger. Another group consisted of 16 experts did the research in several fields including chemistry, pharmacology, psychiatry and legal field to say a final word on drug ranking.
According to this new drug list, alcohol is named A drug. It slightly outruns heroin and cocaine. Tobacco was placed ninth and fell within a category B drug, after amphetamine. Such dangerous drugs as cannabis, LSD, ecstasy were left far near the end of the drug list."infoNIAC

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Drug that Can Mutate Aids Virus to Self-Destruct

HIV
This microscopic image in false color shows the HIV virus up close. Famous for its ability to evolve and evade drugs designed against it, HIV appears vulnerable to a new drug that speeds up the mutation process. It takes time and may not work for all patients, but early clinical trials are promising.


HIV is notorious for its ability to mutate and evade drugs designed to destroy it. Now scientists are testing a new drug that actually speeds up that rate of change in the hope that the deadly virus will mutate itself to death.

"The HIV virus is so dependent on mutation that it really lives on the edge of existence," said John Reno, Chief Operating Officer for Koronis Pharmaceuticals, the company developing a drug called KP-1461. "But we figured that if we could increase this mutation rate, [HIV] might finally fall off that edge."

KP-1461 is a mutagen, meaning it encourages mutation, and has been in development for several years by the scientists at Koronis Pharmaceuticals.