Recent comments in /f/askscience
[deleted] t1_j5ixy9e wrote
Reply to How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
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Devil_May_Kare t1_j5ixx1t wrote
Reply to comment by bicbrownboi in What is a neurotransmitter "turnover rate", with reference to acetylcholine? What does it mean if the turnover rate is increased or decreased? by yungPH
Sarin gas works by breaking acetylcholinesterase. That reduces the turnover rate of acetylcholine. Maybe OP was reading about sarin?
Felted_Grape t1_j5ixn5o wrote
Reply to comment by bicbrownboi in What is a neurotransmitter "turnover rate", with reference to acetylcholine? What does it mean if the turnover rate is increased or decreased? by yungPH
Interesting. From the name I would have assumed it was the rate of production of acetylcholine in the presynaptic cell. Thanks for the answer
zitrone999 t1_j5ixm97 wrote
Reply to comment by sometimes_bread in Would it be possible to modify a virus to target cancer cells? by KetogenicKraig
Your reply is very interesting, I never heard of oncolytic viruses before (shame on me). It seems to be quite promising, especially for affordable treatments
I worked on gene therapy to elicit an immune response against specific cancer cells. This is done on an individual bases, thus very expensive (and often not very effective), and probably will not be available for many people for a long time.
[deleted] t1_j5ix5u7 wrote
bicbrownboi t1_j5ix3ue wrote
Reply to What is a neurotransmitter "turnover rate", with reference to acetylcholine? What does it mean if the turnover rate is increased or decreased? by yungPH
Turnover rate is relevant for neurotransmitters which are degraded within the synapse. Some NTs are not (see serotonin- not degraded within the synapse to a significant degree, mostly reuptaken by the presynaptic side). Acetylcholine on the other hand is degraded by acetylcholinesterase within the synapse, and its components are then reuptaken. Turnover rate refers to the degradation rate (basically the amount of acetylcholinesterase in the synapse)
[deleted] t1_j5ivht7 wrote
Reply to comment by Silunare in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
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Dodecahedrus t1_j5iv5kr wrote
Reply to comment by JimmyTheCrossEyedDog in What is a neurotransmitter "turnover rate", with reference to acetylcholine? What does it mean if the turnover rate is increased or decreased? by yungPH
Who needs Chat GPT when you have thousands of Redditors here to give the answer.
sometimes_bread t1_j5iui1t wrote
Reply to comment by zitrone999 in Would it be possible to modify a virus to target cancer cells? by KetogenicKraig
You are right! There are several methods by which viruses can be used to target cancer (target specific or not), so I have changed the start of my reply to be more accurate and polite :) cheers
[deleted] t1_j5iugf6 wrote
[deleted] t1_j5it2nj wrote
Reply to How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
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[deleted] t1_j5istq5 wrote
Reply to comment by ofilosf in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
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zitrone999 t1_j5iss1s wrote
Reply to comment by sometimes_bread in Would it be possible to modify a virus to target cancer cells? by KetogenicKraig
I don't think the other answers are wrong, but they describe a very different mechanism.
The oncolytic viruses you describe are targeting cancer cells and kill them.
The other answered describe gene therapy using viruses. The virus there does not kill them, but are used as a vector for a DNA vaccine that tells the immune system to target specific cancer cells. The cancer cells themselves are not infected.
The oncolytic viruses answer is probably more what OP meant.
[deleted] t1_j5is8tn wrote
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Perfect-Height-8837 t1_j5iqwa7 wrote
Reply to comment by ensui67 in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
The best way I've heard it described is, they are dead when outside a cell, alive when inside.
fredmund0 t1_j5ipvq8 wrote
Reply to comment by Ok_Motor_2609 in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
Yes they (mostly) do , this is what they insert into cells to get them to build multiple copies of themselves...
There are exceptions such as (from my memory, it's been a while since I studied) HIV which is a retrovirus, it uses stashes it's instructions as RNA.
Silunare t1_j5ipkew wrote
Reply to comment by ensui67 in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
It makes no sense to equate a complete machine to being alive. Also, they do have DNA but not the machinery to replicate, which is why they have to take over cells as replication factories.
ensui67 t1_j5ip6i3 wrote
Reply to comment by snylekkie in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
Well, the question still remains and actually is, if they do not possess the actual machinery for them to replicate, are they actually a complete machine(alive)?
[deleted] t1_j5ip3ru wrote
Reply to comment by mfb- in How do scientists calculate the size of planets and stars only by using a telescope? by BigBashyBoo
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[deleted] t1_j5iojhg wrote
[deleted] t1_j5ioijv wrote
Reply to comment by Ok_Motor_2609 in How do we know how old viruses are? by Darth_Fatass
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frank_my_underwood t1_j5izjof wrote
Reply to bi-lateralization of the brain in animals? by mairaliseth
Basically any animal with bilateral symmetry has a “bilateral brain”. It comes with the centralized nervous system, everything (eyes, major ganglia, etc) comes in pairs. All worms, insects, mollusks and every vertebrate has a bilateral brain. I say this from the point of view of an evolutionary biologist, not a neuroscientist.
If you’re wondering about different “specialization” of one brain half vs another, I’m not sure. However, brains have been separated into 2 bilateral parts since a common ancestor over 500 million years ago.