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Three-Dimensional Structure of HIV Revealed
Mutatis Mutandis writes "The BBC is reporting that a team of scientists from Oxford, Heidelberg and Munich has created the first accurate three-dimensional images of the HIV virus. The virus was found to have an average diameter of 125 nanometers, well below the wavelength of visible light. In the past the structure of viruses with a regular structure has been produced by 3D reconstruction techniques that work on a set of electron microscopy images of different viruses, but the irregular structure of HIV does not allow this. Scientists have now used a tomography technique that employs a series of images taken from a single virus, somewhat similar to the better known X-Ray CAT scan, but on a quite different scale." Structure also has a video of the 3-d rendering available for download. Relatedly an anonymous reader writes "A research team at Brown University has genetically modified bacteria found in yogurt so that the bugs produce a protein proven to block HIV infection in monkeys. The results offer hope for a microbicide that can prevent the spread of HIV, which now affects about 40 million people."
step 1. Publish stereo pictures of HIV ...
step 2.
step 3. Profit
step 4. More funding for AIDS researchers. Same reason NASA publishes those Mars Rover pics and Hubble pseudocolors.
I hope this answers your inquiry as to how a picture of a virus and information on its geometry can help us in viral combat.
It's the same way in the states. I live in NY, which has a relatively high percentage of HIV cases (HIV is very prevalent amongst poor African American and Hispanic communities - with additional stressors of a dense population). A friend teaches teens and told me that one of her students commented that it "wasn't a big deal" and that he'd just take "the pills" if he contracted it. He concluded by saying he wore no protection for sex.
There is a perception that it is a rare, chronic, and treatable disease.
un burrito me trampeó.
The survey itself should be examined, though. It is very easy to put in leading questions, especially in a subject area that invites more tales of bravado than facts. It would be good if a more comprehensive survey could be done across Europe, not only looking at risky behaviour, but also looking at limits of knowledge.
eg: One antiviral used to treat AIDS in Africa was banned by the FDA in America as it is extremely toxic and rapidly kills the person taking it. The FDA is also sponsoring the use of the drug in Africa, which got some media attention recently. How many people read those reports? What is the general awareness like of the toxicity of the available treatments?
The problem with AIDS is that it isn't as dramatic as, say, Ebola, or as colourful as the Black Death. Unlike, say, Spanish Flu, the death rates are given in decades rather than days. A year, for a teenager, is forever. The incubation period for HIV is variable but 5 years is not unusual. What's five times eternity?
It's hard to get a handle on how many people are infected, or what their distribution is, but if you were to start with five hundred million, concentrated in areas that have reached one extreme or another, you'd probably be reasonably close.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The H in HIV stands for "human".
The biggest advance of the study is that it illuminates how the maturation process of the virus works.
HIV contains an enzyme, known as HIV protease, with related functionality to the proteases found in "biological" washing powders: It cuts other proteins in pieces. In HIV one of its functions is to cut a protein called gag, which helps the virus to assemble and leave a cell, into two others, known as matrix and capsid. The matrix supports the outer membrane of the virus, while the capsid surrounds the critical part of the virus that enters an infected cells, i.e. its genome and some other enzymes. The gag and matrix proteins form round shapes, but capsid assembles to a conical structure.
This maturation process (probably and mostly) happens after newly made viral particles leave cells, but before they can infect other cells. Apparently, if I understand the paper correctly, the capsid assembles from one end the virus and just stops to grow and seals when it reaches the other end.
Maturation is a potentially interesting drug target. But medical possibilities aside, the gag protein has interesting applications in biotechnology, as it forms a self-assembling nanostructure. You can already get commercially grown gag nanoparticles. The building blocks of HIV are potenial building blocks for the next generation of computers, strange as it may seem...
One would imagine it's not used in sexual situations at all, but as a preventative measure during medical procedures.
And what really enfuriates me, is that people panic and floc to not-yet-proven (or just plain paranoid) methods to protect themselves against the latest very exotic, very rare decease they heard about on TV...
People run around like headless chickens when a few die of mad cow or whatever but nobody cares about AIDS killing thousands daily.
The latest mediatic decease ends up killing less then you normal flu, or the car, or alcohol.
Fear and ignorance go hand in hand my friends while the real risks are ignored.
"You superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons" - The Simpsons
Not that big of a deal?
Society treats you like a leper. Most people wouldn't shake your hand if you told them you were HIV positive. Many people are so afraid of HIV, they would rather throw away the cutlery you ate dinner with than "take a risk" and wash it, if they invited you to dinner at all.
Intimacy is all but impossible. How many people would knowingly have (protected) sex with an HIV-infected partner? Most people would not dare kiss you if you are HIV positive, much less any other intimate activity. With appropriate protection, it is perfectly safe, but good luck convincing someone of that.
The financial strain is huge. Repressive therapy is quite expensive, and even if the patient is not paying the costs, someone is. The majority of HIV positive patients worldwide can't afford a tenth of the medication they need. Without adequate treatment, these same people will develop AIDS within 10 years of infection, and then the medical bills skyrocket, as even a minor cold calls for hospitalization.
HIV is a slippery target. Every day could be the day that the virus mutates again, and becomes resistant to current therapies. Those who contract this new variant could very well be dead before medicines catch up.
In short: Use protection, every time. That's all it takes. Would you play Russian roulette with a 1000-shot revolver? I hope not. Knowing only 1 in a thousand people dies of AIDS is no comfort when you are that 1.
Most ID proponents are for any argument which will support their position in a public debate & let them get religion into science classes. They don't really care whether they believe that argument, as long as they can fool the public.
You seem to not recognize that there are some pretty significant sociological issues preventing people from getting this kind of education, in addition to the problem that people are programmed to have sex.
For instance Catholic Bishops and priests teach their very God fearing populations that if they use contraceptives, including condoms they are committing a mortal sin. The attitude seems to be that people don't care if they're having sex outside of marriage, but they do care if they are using a condom...
It really isn't as simple as being careful about sex - because even if you do have sex in the confines of marriage there is no guarantee that your partner is faithful - centuries have of human history indicate that there will always be affairs, and an unfaithful partner in a country with ~30% infected population can very easily be a death sentence for both partners.
So even being careful about having sex isn't sufficient, sure total abstinence may work, unless you're a woman in sub-Saharan Africa who is betrothed to her 30 something husband at age 12...
Because to properly control AIDS, much of our social structure would need to change. Some changes are:
*Acceptance that people are not going to stop having sex
*People are willing to risk death for sex
*Acceptance that when we hit puberty, we are adults, and will start having sex
*Honest prostitution would need to be legal and acceptable
*Dishonest prostitution (currently the most common dating ritual) would need to be shunned
*The truly stupid would need to be rounded up and incarcerated for their own and our protection. I don't mean the generally stupid, or those that disagree with me. I mean people like my neighbor that thinks her cats don't need to be fixed because it is their responsibility not to get pregnant. If she is to stupid to understand what a cat is, she certainly is not going to be convinced that she needs condoms.
*Acceptance that people don't choose sexual partners due to their intellegence
*Acceptance that people will have sex with other people that they don't like
*Acceptance that in fact when desperate enough, much of the poplulation will have sex with people they don't find attractive
*Acceptance that the difference between men and womens sexual behaviours is more due to social pressures than biological ones
I'm sure that there are many others, but these prevent education from being effective alone. We live in a world of self denial, and I don't see that changing soon.
Those who are extremely stupid will end up in jails anyway -- it will be expensive to feed them but so be it, I'll pay taxes to keep my white trash neighbours in jail before I'll pay taxes to fund their drug use and their welfare checks.
We do live in a world of self denial, we are even in denial about our denial (the same thing really...). Everyone today will defend their and others behaviors as "just natural" -- the animals do it, so I will do it too, It's in my genes and I can't help it. "The genes made me rob that store, your honor!" Pesonal responability and restraint is something that is fading away and there is not sign of it coming back.