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“Our future drugs will come from the oceans”

It's a bit of a stretch to say nucleoside analogs are derived from marine life. Give the med chemists some credit.
 
1024px-Sarpa_salpa_.jpg


I've always been curious about this little dude (Sarpa salpa), he's hallucinogenic. It's called. It's called "ichthyoallyeinotoxism," which is a heck of a mouthful, and apparently they still don't know what compounds are doing it. Reddit did some research on what is known. Some good info, but it's still reddit, be careful you don't catch cancer. Brominated DMT analogues are ,mentioned, as well as weird shit like:

Dimethyl%205%2C12-dihydroindolo%5B2%27%2C3%27%3A5%2C6%5Dcycloocta%5B1%2C2-b%5Dindole-6%2C13-dicarboxylate.png


Bunch of stuff that doesn't seem obviously analagous to known drugs.

A friend of mine used to have a mated pair of B. alvarius. I always found their tryptamine-containing venom to be delightful. I wonder if PD types are ready to graduate from toads to fish.

Apparently the fish is really hardcore, though. Hallucinations for 36 hours. There are several of them which probably have different alkaloids.
 
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i want to die and go to the oceans, personally. interesting compilation btw. and i have been following this for a while too and redditing it and no responses.
most of those very promising chemicals do come from the ocean, especially studied by japan, south korea, china. not much talk in the state and there never will be trust me.
anyway have fun! whatever. im gonna ride a dolphin now!!!!
 
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Fuck. And here I was thinking that somebody had published the results of a groundbreaking study detailing the growth certain plant species in the sea! :cry:
 
Personally, I’m almost dead sure our future drugs will be delivered, not free of charge but within seconds, by 5G.

Just keep up those payments. Don’t wanna get caught clucking.
 
Well we've been researching plants for a very long time, they proved to be a gold mine of biologically active molecules. In fact, a large percentage of drugs/pharmas either come directly from plants (mainly secondary plant metabolites like terpenoids and alkaloids), or are modified versions of said plant molecules. At the very least, they serve as inspiration for the design of novel compounds.

Plant metabolites are extremely diverse, partly because plants can't defend themselves like we animals can (not physically menacing, can't run, can't bite), which means they have to resort to chemistry instead. Moreover, they also use molecules to keep pollinators and other good creatures happy, and to establish and maintain symbiotic relationships with aninals, fungus, bacteria and other plants.

Many known plants have been extensively studied for drug-discovery purposes, yet there's still a lot of stuff out there waiting to be discovered. For instance, ecosystems such as rainforests are particularly promesing due to their extremely high biodiversity, and also because they remained largely unexplored.

But the ocean is even better in pretty much every way, the untapped potential is huge.
What we need are rich&diverse ecosystems, particularly coral reefs. The more species living together, the higher the chances of finding novel molecules.
IMO it's fairly likely that we'll be able to find groundbreaking treatments or even a cure for some of the most problematic diseases of our time (cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, auto-immune stuff, diabetes, etc...).
So yeah that's one more reason to protect those ecosystems, if we destroy them we will lose a huge source of knowledge, forever. Who would have guessed that sea sponges and a bunch of weird marine creatures would be so important.
 
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kind of funny though. most of the ocean, i believe something like 90% is not explored?? but civilization and especially SCIENCE BASED CORPORATIONS are already draining it into the toilet hole of earth. How are we suppose to ever advance ourselves and find and figure out new and exciting creatures or better yet, cures for various illnesses based off them if we keep flushing the ocean as toilet water into the pits of earth's hell?? We are already trying SO HARD to explore SPACE. We will have people on Mars soon but our own oceans, still unexplored?? IS THIS A JOKE?? We will end up exploring Mars before OUR OWN OCEANS! LOL!!!
Humans are retards. :.(
 
allone said:
kind of funny though. most of the ocean, i believe something like 90% is not explored?? but civilization and especially SCIENCE BASED CORPORATIONS are already draining it into the toilet hole of earth. How are we suppose to ever advance ourselves and find and figure out new and exciting creatures or better yet, cures for various illnesses based off them if we keep flushing the ocean as toilet water into the pits of earth's hell?? We are already trying SO HARD to explore SPACE. We will have people on Mars soon but our own oceans, still unexplored?? IS THIS A JOKE?? We will end up exploring Mars before OUR OWN OCEANS! LOL!!!
Humans are retards.
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You mentioned some important points. I personally think space research&exploration is pretty important, for survival reasons (at the very least we need better tech to defend ourselves from incoming asteroids), but also because there's plenty of stuff to be learned, which might end up improving our quality of life. But we should of course focus on our planet as well, there are many unsolved issues and a lot of unknowns.

We are actually doing all of those things (and much more) right now, there's plenty of good stuff happening everyday, we just don't hear much about it because the media prioritizes anxiogenic stories that keep people engaged.
However, it's true that some important areas aren't getting enough funds. Humanity has plenty of brainpower available but some of it is being wasted, we probably need to reevaluate some of our current priorities.


I don't think it's fair to say that those corporations are fundamentally based on science. For starters, the main purpose of a corporation is to create value, though this often means making as much profit as possible and keeping their shareholders happy (this doesn't necessarily have to be a negative thing, sadly there's plenty of bad examples).
The tricky thing is that big corporations are complicated "machines" with a bit of a mind of their own. It's not that they're pationate about polluting the oceans and destroying ecosystems, they're often just stuck in their old ways and focused in short-term gains.
Developing more sustainable and less polluting processes usually requires major investments. It's not that big corps can't afford it, they just won't do it unless they're required to.

IMO it's not about making the other side pay for what they've done, what we need is a system where everybody benefits from doing the "right thing".
 
4meSM said:
I don't think it's fair to say that those corporations are fundamentally based on science. For starters, the main purpose of a corporation is to create value, though this often means making as much profit as possible and keeping their shareholders happy (this doesn't necessarily have to be a negative thing, sadly there's plenty of bad examples).
The tricky thing is that big corporations are complicated "machines" with a bit of a mind of their own. It's not that they're pationate about polluting the oceans and destroying ecosystems, they're often just stuck in their old ways and focused in short-term gains.
Developing more sustainable and less polluting processes usually requires major investments. It's not that big corps can't afford it, they just won't do it unless they're required to.

IMO it's not about making the other side pay for what they've done, what we need is a system where everybody benefits from doing the "right thing".
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Not to forget the approval process which is a big hurdle to take, costing millions of $$$ and makes the corps focus on only a few out of many potentially promising candidates, because they can't or won't afford the costs for all but the very most promising drugs. Afaik this is similar in all western countries, don't know about e.g. Russia.

As people are so different, that for example some experience heavy tiredness while others can't sleep from the very same antidepressant and there is no real explanation for, doctors just accept it.. so my 2 cents are that at least some of the drugs which get sorted out, either failing to show efficacy in early trials or just out of business decisions, could have much potential for some individuals. I'd say we need more choice instead of one single miracle drug. In theory all the SSRIs should show similar effects with some varying side effects but they don't. Might be even more serious with drugs for physical disorders like cancer treatment or pain.

It makes me so sad to see and know about the rainforest being decimated day by day, also possibly destroying yet unknown species forever.. Bolsonaro deserves prison sentence as do other political and corporate leaders who value only profit at all costs but know, it's a naive dream..

@allone Why do you hate scientists? About the other professions I fully agree. Recently read that lawyers are among the top few professions which attract psychopaths. as are surgeons, the others I forgot..
Yeah of course, there are bad scientists, selling their profession out for money etc.. yet afaik the worst is done by politics like the EU conducting senseless animal tests about many thousand chemicals, and corps will limit research by their very nature, that the results need to bring revenue..

Governments should pay research directly like they fund military.. free open access to all knowledge for everybody but the corps who then sell products based on this research requiring kind of license or patent fee..
 
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plumbus-nine said:
As people are so different, that for example some experience heavy tiredness while others can't sleep from the very same antidepressant and there is no real explanation for, doctors just accept it.. so my 2 cents are that at least some of the drugs which get sorted out, either failing to show efficacy in early trials or just out of business decisions, could have much potential for some individuals. I'd say we need more choice instead of one single miracle drug. In theory all the SSRIs should show similar effects with some varying side effects but they don't. Might be even more serious with drugs for physical disorders like cancer treatment or pain.
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Yeah we have been moving towards personalized medicine, but I think it will take a while until it becomes common practice.
A lot of progress has been done in the fields of molecular biology and genomics so things seem to be speeding up a bit, nowadays you can have your genome sequenced for about 1000$.
Tons of money has been invested in the development of "alternative" treatments, such as the use of specialized (big) molecules like monoclonal antibodies and proteins as therapeutic agents.
Also gene therapy/gene editing is very trendy right now (stuff like crispr), it does look pretty promesing but only time will tell.

However, small organic molecules are pretty much the best we've got, they have been tremendously successful and their efficacy has been proven over and over again (they're also getting more and more selective = less side-effects).
Those molecules are definitely the main reason why our average life expectancy has increased dramatically over the last century or so.
They do have some limitations when it comes to certain diseases though, particularly genetic disorders, including many types of cancer and arguably some psychological conditions as well. Or maybe we just haven't found the right molecules yet.
 
I've once seen a documentary about dolphins in witch they used some kind of a fish to get high upon, the one that is yellow with stingies allover it and that can become become bigger like a balloon. They'd float on their backs for 10-15minutes afterwards, and was popular only amongst the young "mid-adults" dolphins
 
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Quite cool to watch, as they wouldn't eat it, but just slightly bite it like a dog would with his hand.
 
Humans do that with those fish too in the form of fugu. Puffer fish prepared to be almost completely tetrodotoxin free, but still a trace amount that makes your lips go numb.
Gaffy said:
Quite cool to watch, as they wouldn't eat it, but just slightly bite it like a dog would with his hand.
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Skorpio said:
Humans do that with those fish too in the form of fugu. Puffer fish prepared to be almost completely tetrodotoxin free, but still a trace amount that makes your lips go numb.
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This was the first thing that came to my mind but you beat me to it! :)
 
allone said:
hopefully the oceans wont bring us drugs to be addicted to, but actually CURE ADDICTION so no drug can ever addict us, eh?
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I find it easy to get addicted to anything. That's my downfall.

But after seeing your signature, your distrust of doctors and to a greater extent, scientists, is a little disconcerting. Without them, what hope do we have?
 
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