AIDS patient is reported cured

[melbufrauma]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/health/14hiv.html pretty intresting nonetheless

[_chuchu]

Think this was posted already somewhere here

[Kuya]

Impractical is an understatement.

[Jotaru]

If nothing else, its nice to hear that, in a way, they've found a cure for AIDS. Its pretty crazy.

[Zosi]

Yeah, long way to go before this could be widely done, but it's interesting that it works. The way that I could see it working some day would be if we were able to grow bone marrow from stem cells or similar with the genetic modification to give immunity, then "transplant" those cells back into the patient. From what I've heard, that's impractical right now because the bone marrow cells we can grow right now don't live long enough to be viable to transplant, and obviously because we haven't designed a way to do the genetic modification yet. I'm not in a position to say whether those are completely insurmountable obstacles, but I certainly hope they end up not being such.

[Kiro]

The fuck is this nonsense, rofl. ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, SWEET!

[Creeps]

A Joker avatar and sig, how original

[Kiro]

He's had it for a very very long time.

[Howard Roark]

A Joker avatar and sig, how original

thanks for contributing

no avatar and no sig, also very original, weeeeeeeee

[Metah]

Impractical or not, the proof is in that it works.

[Septimus]

Impractical or not, the proof is in that it works.

Works is a bit premature. HIV can hide in various cells for a very long time. Just because it works now does not mean that it he will stay virus free. (Like if he rejects the transplant or if the virus goes all mutatey again.) And there is still the chance that he could have enough of the virus in his system to infect others.

I've heard the word "cure" used for this disease before, and it has always been premature.

[miokomioko]

How long is a long time? 20 months seems pretty legit from what I've read about HIV, but I suppose I haven't read much.

[The Stig]

Link is blocked at work for some reason.

Did they inject cash? XD

[0ni0n]

How long is a long time? 20 months seems pretty legit from what I've read about HIV, but I suppose I haven't read much.

We are talking about years, even a decade of staying dormant. One reason the virus is so deadly and widespread is because alot people who have the virus but don't know about it. They have no symptoms at all when the virus is dormant. But once it's active, it could become full blown AIDS rapidly if left untreated. There are highly effective drugs out there that will keep the virus count extremely low for a couple decades, and that's why the life expectancy of AIDS patients in the US are much much higher than say, in africa.

[ZarakiKujata]

Everyone knows that the cure for AIDS is an injection of cash, and also its not as bad as cancer.

[Gwynplaine]

Someone made an interesting point in the comments.

Why not insert the DNA sequence that confers resistance to H.I.V. into the corresponding gene in a nucleus taken from the patient, then clone the stem cells? Unlike monkeying with monkey cells, there would be no need to harm the patient's immune system at all. Of course, the George W. Bush ban on therapeutic cloning will need to be repealed - or those who need the treatment will travel to an Atheist country like the Netherlands or the Czech Republic to be cured. It would be better for America to repeal that idiotic prohibition. Political stupidity is NOT a law of nature.

Anyways, it's always difficult trying to appraise a scientific article written by journalists. There's so much room for them to get it wrong, or exaggerate. I guess time will tell, it's impressive anyway.

[Zosi]

That's what my post was about. Problem is that we don't have a way to keep "grown" bone marrow viable long enough for it to reproduce and be transplanted back into the host, and George's restrictions on stem cell research really slow things down.

[Stromgarde]

I read about this a couple of days ago. It implied that the treatment hinged on the donor having an anomaly present in only 3% of Europeans in addition to a compatible blood type / what have you. And then there's the high fatality rate associated with bone marrow transplants to begin with... even if this does work as advertised, it's still far from being the miracle everyone would love to have.

[Zosi]

I read about this a couple of days ago. It implied that the treatment hinged on the donor having an anomaly present in only 3% of Europeans in addition to a compatible blood type / what have you. And then there's the high fatality rate associated with bone marrow transplants to begin with... even if this does work as advertised, it's still far from being the miracle everyone would love to have.

Thus why everyone (including the article's author) is talking about stem cells and gene therapy rather than this being some miraculous cure. I don't know which article you read, but none of the ones I've read about it have been "ZOMG CURE 4 AIDS WOW GUYZ", they were more "Hmm, an impractical method that may become useful in a few years/decades once we get some other stuff down". Don't be a wet blanket just because it's not practical now, a lot can change in a generation or two, and it won't happen if people just give up now because it's hard.

If we can figure out how to grow viable bone marrow with that gene switched on/off from the patient's own cells, then the other problems you mentioned mostly go away. That's what people are hoping for eventually. It'll probably still be risky, but hey, so is living with AIDS.

[oldoldman]

That mutation, discovered in a few gay men in the 1990s and known as Delta 32, must be inherited from both parents.

Ironyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy