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HIV Vaccine Ready For Clinical Trials

amigoro writes with the happy news that a possible vaccine against HIV is nearing readiness for clinical trials. The compound could provide a 'double whammy' by not only inoculating the patient against future infection, but destroying an HIV infection in progress. "The vaccine is an artificial virus-like particle whose outer casing consists of the TBI (T- and B cell epitopes containing immunogen) protein constructed by the researchers combined with the polyglucin protein. This protein contains nine components stimulating different cells of the immune system: both the ones that produce antibodies and the ones that devour the newcomer."

8 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hmm... by thePsychologist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    America isn't the world. With HIV being such a high profile disease, there is no way an effective vaccine will be slowed or stopped by politics and bullshit.

    --
    "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
  2. Re:He who gets AIDS deserves to get AIDS... by bcreason · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tell that crap to a medical worker who got aids from an accidental needle prick or the woman who got it from her husband. Sanctimonious SOB.

  3. Re:Yes, please tell them to wake me... by buswolley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Peer Review? It preliminary research was published in a peer reviewed journal. I found it in PubMed and gave it a read. I didn't understand much though, but on first glance it looks legit...as far as it goes. I mean, the results are promising but preliminary.

    --

    A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

  4. Re:But what if youv got the AIDS? by Puff+of+Logic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Retrovirus contain RNA which through reverse transcription modifies the hosts DNA. Large portions of DNA are useless garbage only there as place holders. I'm not sure that our relatively rudimentary understanding of genetics is capable of supporting this assertion. While introns are certainly excised during transcription, to suggest that they, and other non-coding sequences, are "useless garbage" is probably not a scientific viewpoint. While it may seem that non-coding portions of DNA simply serve as placeholders at our currently level of understanding, it is perhaps possible that these repeating sequences are part of a secondary code that serves a useful (but as yet unclear) function. IANAGeneticist, but I believe that the jury is still out on the concept of "junk DNA".

    Of course, it's entirely possible that the code is indeed useless, but that would seem to go against the tendency of evolution to be frugal.
    --
    P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
  5. Re:Sad.. by balloonhead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Abstinence is not 100% effective.

    Coupled with:
    - not being born to an HIV positive mother
    - not sharing needles when injecting drugs
    - not receiving tainted blood product transfusions
    - not being bitten, scratched or otherwise suffering an infectious injury from a carrier
    - not sustaining a needlestick injury if you are a healthcare worker from an HIV carrier
    - not partaking in lower (but still not zero-) risk sexual activities (e.g. oral sex)
    - not being exposed via other means (e.g. blood injuries in sports)

    there are probably a few others I haven't thought of, but stop being so sanctimonious. There are a lot of people out there who contracted HIV through no fault of their own - one of the largest groups were haemophiliacs before the disease was even known about.

    --
    This idea was invented by Shampoo.
  6. Re:He who gets AIDS deserves to get AIDS... by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tell that crap to a medical worker who got aids from an accidental needle prick ...

    Or, indeed, to someone who got AIDS from having some fun and sleeping around. WTF is wrong with that?

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  7. Re:But what if youv got the AIDS? by tloh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    insightful???

    I think not.

    Not everyone who gets AIDS can afford drug therapy. The vast majority of new infections in 3rd world countries will most certainly not engage in treatment. Drug companies are only making money off "daily regiments" by bleeding dry a very small minority of AIDS sufferers.

    Now think about a vaccine. If a viable vaccine is released, *EVERYONE* gets immunized. Get the picture? Not just rich HIV+ westerners Even those who are poor, even those who *DON'T HAVE THE DISEASE* will likely get immunized via global public campaigns of the type that eradicated smallpox. After having identified AIDS as a major factor in geo-political instability, you can bet that the UN (among others) is going to make a very good effort to pump money into any viable efforts to halt/reverse the spread of this disease.

    No money to be made? only a fool would walk away from this.

    I hear the cynics say this type of thing an awful lot and it just makes no sense. Has there been any actual real life case of pharmaceutical intentionally siting on a cure due to profit motives? Seriously, I genuinely want to learn about historic examples that justify this kind of fear.

    --
    Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
  8. Re:He who gets AIDS deserves to get AIDS... by TheGreatHegemon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed. This strikes incredibly close to home, actually. My mother is currently a nurse. Once while drawing blood from a lady, the lady went psycho and blood ended up spraying into my mother's eye. Why were they drawing blood? She had common symptoms of AIDs. Those next few days were hell for the entire family (First, the lady refused to give blood again for testing, and second the labs still process it at the normal rate, despite the fact it happened on the job), thankfully it turned out said crazy lazy did NOT have AIDs or HIV. Could you fairly have cursed a faithful wife and mother to AIDs through such a silly claim? Furthermore, what's wrong with sleeping around, anyway? I shouldn't just have to defend it with my own mother...