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HIV Vaccine Ready For Clinical Trials

Posted by Zonk on from the go-science-go-science dept.

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."

5 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: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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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