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Ebola + HIV = Great Gene Therapy?

Posted by timothy on from the strange-origins dept.

Artifice_Eternity writes: "This NY Times article describes a new gene therapy technique, built from two of the most feared diseases known to humankind. The Ebola and HIV virii each possess qualities that are useful in getting new genes into the body, to replace defective ones. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Human Gene Therapy have snipped out bits from each virus, and successfully used their hybrid virus to deliver a marker gene to mice, by spraying it into their respiratory tracts. This could prove useful in treating cystic fibrosis and other genetically-caused lung diseases. Here's the IHGT's own page on the project. But: here's a Washington Post article from March on the same topic, featuring skeptical comments from Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV. Gallo fears that such a hybrid could potentially combine with 'wild HIV' to produce a new contagion (airborne HIV, anyone? *cough*)."

3 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. And so could Restriction Enzymes by Ieshan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anyone remember when Restriction Enzymes were all the rage in molecular biology (which wasn't really even a field back then)?

    They were actually banned in Cambridge, MA (home of Harvard and MIT) during the 70s, and now they are used in my Biology Lab courses to teach us how DNA seperates in agarose gel electrophoresis.

    Point being: Don't jump to stupid conclusions about the dangers of things.

  2. I LOVE YOU! by jasno · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm just waiting for some bored kid in the philippines to whip up a strain of influenza that alters your neurons to start producing MDMA...

    We can call it the 'ILOVEYOU' virus...

    --

    http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
  3. Caution is warranted by Shere+Khan · · Score: 4, Informative
    Having spent some time at a lab doing cutting edge HIV research I have to say that those "genes which help HIV infect and persist" in cells are also what makes HIV incurable. While we now understand the basics, we still don't understand all of the details. And given the ability of viruses to rapidly mutate and/or trade genes, the last thing I want is a permanent, incurable, but theoretically harmless, virus in my system which can mutate into something nasty or pick up new tricks from another more harmful virus I might come down with...

    I'm all for continuing research in a secure facility, but until we have the ability to eradicate such a virus from the body I'd be very reluctant to have even a "harmless" virus with those genes added inserted into anyone who isn't already dying, and even then I'd have to think long and hard.