Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

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AAudiophilip 1 day ago 61 commentsRead Article on sciencedaily.com

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Discussion (61 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

wnmurphy•about 8 hours ago

In case this is useful for anyone, this study on high-risk HPV and medicinal mushrooms blew my mind:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25271984/

In 88% (36 out of 41) of patients with high-risk HPV, taking reishi + turkey tail mushrooms daily for 2 months cleared the virus, versus 5% clearance (1 out of 20) in the control group. I suspect that 88% clearance rate would be higher if they continued for longer than 2 months.

volkl48•about 6 hours ago

Sorry, but no. This does not pass the smell test in the slightest.

This is:

- A single author paper with no academic affiliations.

- A search on the internet for this author finds them also pitching essential oils and a wide variety of other "alternative medicine" on the Youtube/Podcast grifter circuit and not the sorts of alternative medicine anyone seriously thinks might have some merit.

- The address listed for his supposed place of practice appears to be a roadside "clini-spa" advertising beauty treatments.

- This could only get published in some low-impact journal that's solely about the purported benefits of mushrooms, even though if true this would be a pretty revolutionary finding that would be of interest to far bigger journals.

Can I prove it's fraud? No, especially since I'm not paying $25 to look at the paper details.

But unless this finding replicates from someone with credibility, I don't think this means much of anything and I certainly don't think you should be taking anything in this paper as a fact.

wxw•about 24 hours ago

Tangentially related, apparently xylitol gum can reduce cavity risk by killing off bacteria (which cannot digest but cannot differentiate xylitol from regular sugar) in the mouth.

mdasen•about 23 hours ago

Xylitol is really cool that way. The bacteria waste energy trying to convert it to a form they can use, but they just end up with at a dead end with xylitol-5-phosphate. Once they realize that they need to get rid of it, they convert it back to xylitol (so it can cross the membrane easier and probably to keep the phosphate). Of course, that means the xylitol is back to fool some other nearby bacteria into wasting its energy.

They end up wasting their energy on work that won't help them reproduce and needing to waste more energy getting rid of it.

nixonaddiction•about 11 hours ago

apparently it helps reduce risk of mouth cancer..... what im hearing is rotate this and zyns in my mouth, see what happens.

noisy_boy•about 23 hours ago

Alternative form of delivery required for Singapore.

eru•about 15 hours ago

Chewing gum in Singapore is a bit like medical marijuana was in California.

Possession and use of chewing gum is legal. Importation for personal consumption is also legal. Selling and importing in commercial quantities are banned.

whazor•about 13 hours ago

Ah, a real delicacy then

kybishop•about 20 hours ago

I'm just over here wondering how/where/when I can buy this

VladVladikoff•about 23 hours ago

I wonder if chewing mastic would be as effective?

code_biologist•about 19 hours ago

I started chewing mastic gum a few years ago as a jaw-shape maintenance measure. An encouragement for anyone who's curious about it: I like the taste and stiff texture of mastic more than normal gum these days.

hkt•about 18 hours ago

Can you explain what you mean by a maintenance measure for your jaw shape? Is the idea.. a jaw workout?

code_biologist•about 15 hours ago

The looksmaxxing thing is a real reason mastic gum as a jaw workout is promoted. Won't deny that.

My use of it comes from early 2010s era paleo-food community observations about hunter gatherers having less crowded jaws than agriculturalist and modern peoples, hypothesized to be due to both micronutrient intake and also eating tougher foods. Cramped jaws and facial structures lead to both malocclusion and also nasal breathing issues, and mouth breathing also reinforces those pathological facial changes. Granted, this stuff is from sources that I've heard wildly varying opinions on (Weston A Price; Mike Mew). Jaw and facial structure continues to change into adulthood. I needed extensive orthodontics in my youth and have struggled with sleep apnea in adulthood. This broad set of hypotheses made sense to me, and chewing mastic gum was the easiest way to get a full dose of "chew tougher food" in my life. I try to snack on raw carrots too.

Speaking to attractiveness, there's an uncomfortable photo of identical twins in one of the Weston Price books, one given orthodontic treatment that widened their facial structure and one was not. The one with the widened facial structure was more attractive. The difference wasn't gigantic, but it wasn't small either.

4gotunameagain•about 18 hours ago

It's the new gen Z and younger thing, micro-optimise your appearance.

Outcome of chronic social media exposure.

eru•about 15 hours ago

I tried it, but it goes through some weird changes while you chew it.

jdw64•about 19 hours ago

I'm curious. HIV has been largely conquered, so why hasn't HPV been conquered yet? Same goes for shingles.

kevin_thibedeau•about 9 hours ago

Chicken pox is conquered. We went from 95% to <1%. Shingles will see a similar plunge.

Perseids•about 18 hours ago

Adding to my sibling comments: It also has been conquered in some sense of the word. There are effective vaccines for the 9 most problematic HPV types: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine . It is worth getting, regardless of your gender.

cubefox•about 15 hours ago

Gardasil 9 seems to be the best available HPV vaccine. I guess the chewing gum is mainly intended for people who were already infected with some HPV strain before they got the vaccine, or where the vaccine didn't work (because it doesn't offer complete protection).

AlanYx•about 9 hours ago

>Gardasil 9 seems to be the best available HPV vaccine.

Only in high income countries. The 4-valent version is still the dominant version available worldwide.

cyberax•about 18 hours ago

You need to use antiretrovirals constantly to control the HIV. It's not worth it for the HPV that is mostly benign (and only rarely causes cancer).

jdw64•about 18 hours ago

thanks!

jobs_throwaway•about 10 hours ago

There's been a lot of failed attempts at therapeutic vaccines and the like, but nothing has proven effective. It seems that the virus is quite hard to detect and target in the skin.

That, plus a lack of urgency due to the effectiveness of preventative vaccines, leads to a lack of urgency on the issue.

TZubiri•about 18 hours ago

Less resources devoted to curing because of lower lethality

bamboozled•about 15 hours ago

This is the future I wanted.

shevy-java•1 day ago

Sounds like an ad. "Eat this gum, it is so healthy."

stogot•1 day ago

Gum is often made of plastics so won’t be surprised if cancerous themselves

fernly•1 day ago

It says, "involving chewing gum made from lablab beans (bean gum)".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lablab --

Taiwanese researchers found that a carbohydrate-binding protein (i.e. a legume lectin) from lablab beans effectively blocks the infections of influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2.[60] Researchers from Finland and USA found that extracts from chewing gum manufactured from lablab bean seeds had broad-spectrum anti-viral properties, likely due to the binding action of Flt3 Receptor Interacting Lectin (FRIL) on viruses; the anti-viral effect was similar to that of purified FRIL

jerbearito•1 day ago

Lol they didn't read the article.

dyauspitr•1 day ago

Hunh I always assumed it was just some kind of modified natural rubber but it’s literally plastic (PVAc, PIB) that release microplastics into the saliva.

colordrops•about 17 hours ago

Aren't all gum based basically plastic? Including natural ones? So chewing any gum is just going to fill your body with microplastics right? I wonder if the risk offset is worth it.

simtel20•about 10 hours ago

The original chewing gum was a latex called chicle from tropical trees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicle?wprov=sfla1

eru•about 15 hours ago

Those are some great leaps of logic.

colordrops•about 7 hours ago

This is a content-free comment. First, it's a statement of fact, not a logical deduction. Please explain where I'm wrong and educate all of us.

HN is pretty good normally, but it has its share of idiots too.

https://samueli.ucla.edu/bursting-your-bubble-chewing-gum-re...

colordrops•about 7 hours ago

For those downvoting me:

https://samueli.ucla.edu/bursting-your-bubble-chewing-gum-re...

This includes natural gum bases.

grokcodec•about 22 hours ago

Not worth the time of day until it can be demonstrated that there is a net health benefit. Precautionary Principle FTW.

fsckboy•about 21 hours ago

humans evolved to have risk seekers and risk avoiders. some people try it, the other people watch.

skylurk•about 19 hours ago

we owe the dairy industry to this phenomena, and also a lot of fetishes

rustystump•about 18 hours ago

I mean some fetishes have science behind why they exist. For example, the part of the brain that process feet is located next to the area that processes genitals. At least, some are explainable. Some are not.