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anyone420
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Doctor accidentally cures aids
#9210513 - 11/09/08 06:45 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html
he startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.
The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.
"I was very surprised," said the doctor, Gero Hütter.
The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn't an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient's bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The development suggests a potential new therapeutic avenue and comes as the search for a cure has adopted new urgency. Many fear that current AIDS drugs aren't sustainable. Known as antiretrovirals, the medications prevent the virus from replicating but must be taken every day for life and are expensive for poor countries where the disease runs rampant. Last year, AIDS killed two million people; 2.7 million more contracted the virus, so treatment costs will keep ballooning.
While cautioning that the Berlin case could be a fluke, David Baltimore, who won a Nobel prize for his research on tumor viruses, deemed it "a very good sign" and a virtual "proof of principle" for gene-therapy approaches. Dr. Baltimore and his colleague, University of California at Los Angeles researcher Irvin Chen, have developed a gene therapy strategy against HIV that works in a similar way to the Berlin case. Drs. Baltimore and Chen have formed a private company to develop the therapy.
Back in 1996, when "cocktails" of antiretroviral drugs were proved effective, some researchers proposed that all cells harboring HIV might eventually die off, leading to eradication of HIV from the body -- in short, a cure. Those hopes foundered on the discovery that HIV, which integrates itself into a patient's own DNA, hides in so-called "sanctuary cells," where it lies dormant yet remains capable of reigniting an infection.
But that same year, researchers discovered that some gay men astonishingly remained uninfected despite engaging in very risky sex with as many as hundreds of partners. These men had inherited a mutation from both their parents that made them virtually immune to HIV.
The mutation prevents a molecule called CCR5 from appearing on the surface of cells. CCR5 acts as a kind of door for the virus. Since most HIV strains must bind to CCR5 to enter cells, the mutation bars the virus from entering. A new AIDS drug, Selzentry, made by Pfizer Inc., doesn't attack HIV itself but works by blocking CCR5.
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LeftyBurnz
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Registered: 06/21/05
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: anyone420]
#9210718 - 11/09/08 08:45 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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now the problem is finding enough donors with that gene mutation lol.
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destructo_low
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: LeftyBurnz]
#9212142 - 11/09/08 02:23 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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The human body is amazing. What could be called a mutation is most likely the body finally finding a way to fend off AIDS. Eventually everyone will have that "mutation" through natural selection.
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AroundtheSon
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: destructo_low]
#9212160 - 11/09/08 02:29 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
destructo_low said: The human body is amazing. What could be called a mutation is most likely the body finally finding a way to fend off AIDS. Eventually everyone will have that "mutation" through natural selection.
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The_Ghost
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: AroundtheSon]
#9212184 - 11/09/08 02:34 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
AroundtheSon said:
Quote:
destructo_low said: The human body is amazing. What could be called a mutation is most likely the body finally finding a way to fend off AIDS. Eventually everyone will have that "mutation" through natural selection.
Not a fan of the theory of evolution?
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DragonChaser
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: destructo_low]
#9212187 - 11/09/08 02:34 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Maybe if natural selection still applied to humans.
I think doctors theorize that that specific mutation is a direct result of the black plague in Europe hundreds of years ago.
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destructo_low
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: DragonChaser]
#9212203 - 11/09/08 02:38 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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It still does. A person with AIDS will die off faster than someone without AIDS if all other varibles are the same.
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DragonChaser
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: destructo_low]
#9212424 - 11/09/08 03:22 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thats true but I don't think the population carrying HIV is large enough to affect the overall genetic makeup of the human race. If we didn't use medicine to control its spread, and if we didn't have ways to test for it, then sure. But in America at least, detection is often quick enough to effectively prevent an infected person from spreading the disease to other members of the population. Unless they're a total asshole of course, and in which case they can be jailed if they know that they have it and spread it to other people.
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destructo_low
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: DragonChaser]
#9212528 - 11/09/08 03:42 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yeah. I still think that the bodies of the people with the mutation have evolved to fight off the disease. It's the same thing when you make antibodies against a new germ that enters your body. AIDS is just a harder germ to make an antibody against.
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zouden
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: LeftyBurnz]
#9212537 - 11/09/08 03:45 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
leftysurprise said: now the problem is finding enough donors with that gene mutation lol.
Actually, gene therapy could be used to introduce the mutation, so no transplant would be required. This article provides justification for trying that.
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Nibin
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: destructo_low]
#9212685 - 11/09/08 04:10 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
destructo_low said: Yeah. I still think that the bodies of the people with the mutation have evolved to fight off the disease. It's the same thing when you make antibodies against a new germ that enters your body. AIDS is just a harder germ to make an antibody against.
Problem is, AIDS attack the specific cells that actually make antibodies.
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Irdamage
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: Nibin]
#9212706 - 11/09/08 04:14 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Were going to call this the "Wolverine" theory. It should stick.
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scruffymafia
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DragonChaser
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Re: Doctor accidentally cures aids [Re: Nibin]
#9213143 - 11/09/08 05:30 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yeah, these people don't actually make antibodies, they just lack the receptor that HIV binds to.
And zouden... gene therapy will be the shit once they work the kinks out. But like the article says, their past attempts have ended in failure. Even cases where it kind of worked, a lot of people developed leukemia. But as with most medical advances, they break a few eggs first. The doctor who developed the heart transplant was referred to as a butcher because his patients were all dying. The American Medical Association wanted to revoke his license. Suddenly they work out the kinks and he's a hero. Even though, if I remember right, it wasn't actually him but his African American assistant doctor, played by Will Smith in the movie about it, who actually developed the final touches.
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