Tobacco plant virus may yield HIV drug

The production of griffithsin, a promising HIV-prevention drug, has been too expensive to warrant its widespread use. Researchers have recently injected a griffithsin-producing gene from red algae into the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and infected a TMV-susceptible species of tobacco plant with the virus. After infection, griffithsin can be extracted from the wilted leaves in larger amounts than through previous methods.

While it will most certainly be made into a cream, “[a] cigarette containing griffithsin hasn’t been discounted either,” said one of the researchers. Maybe one way for cigarette companies to change their image is to get us addicted to smoke containing antibodies to all the most deadly diseases. Cigarette packs would keep the Surgeon General’s warning:

Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.

but they’d also carry a Surgeon General’s encouragement sticker:

Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.

Slamming UK Anti-Science

Smashing Telly presents Dr. Ben Goldacre laying waste to the media’s obsession with scare stories involving science and medicine. In the linked video Goldacre takes on anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists, chiefly the LBC’s Jeni Barnett.

Goldacre writes The Guardian’s Bad Science column and maintains his own Bad Science blog. He’s also a delicious user, with plenty of good links but no tags.