Scientists Discover First ‘Virological Penicillin’

The combinatorial space of organic molecules, nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, etc. is effectively infinite, and there are trillions of species on Earth making a vast array of such things. We haven't scratched the surface of what's possible either in natural compounds or synthetic ones.

Biochemist here; not 100% certain how a micro-RNA survives the tea extraction process. If the claim is that honeysuckle tea has an antiviral activity, there are probably more active ingredients besides these.

Another sensational title. We have many &quot;virological penicilins&quot;. We call them anti-retrovirals. We even got some for influenza(Oseltamivir ). The only difference is that this is &quot;natural&quot; ,which appears to matter to some people.<p>But it&#x27;s a good discovery, another drug is always useful.

Regarding the fight against Ebola this Liberian doctor is using antivirual medicine Lamivudine which is also used to treat hepatitis B and HIV, on Ebola patients. I hope we can fund some shipments of that if it works. For example Doctors without borders or crowdfunding via Dogecoin. &quot;Of the 15 patients he treated with lamivudine, he says, 13 survived.&quot;<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/10/355164328/a-liberian-doctor-comes-up-with-his-own-ebola-regimen" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;goatsandsoda&#x2F;2014&#x2F;10&#x2F;10&#x2F;355164328&#x2F;a...</a>

One important difference is that penicillin is useful against a wide range of bacteria. I&#x27;m not sure, but the article says that this new drug is useful only against influenza.<p>There are many antiviral, but they are artificial and they are targeted against certain families of virus (for example, acyclovir is only useful against herpes and similar virus <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aciclovir" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aciclovir</a> ).<p>This is the first natural antiviral, but it&#x27;s not a wide range antiviral.

I guess I should stop ripping honeysuckle out of my garden then.<p>That stuff can kill an entire garden in one year though.