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Researchers Modify T-Cells, Make Them HIV Resistant
DieNadel writes to share that naturally occurring proteins called "zinc fingers" are being used in a new approach to AIDS treatment. Using modified T-Cells with the zinc fingers, researchers at the Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown a reduction in viral load in mice. "'By inducing mutations in the CCR5 gene using zinc finger proteins, we've reduced the expression of CCR5 surface proteins on T cells, which is necessary for the AIDS virus to enter these immune system cells,' explains first author Elena Perez, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Penn. 'This approach stops the AIDS virus from entering the T cells because it now has an introduced error into the CCR5 gene.'"
Aren't we having a zinc shortage? Get it from these fingers!!
Oh wait...T-cells. I thought it said T-Virus.
As opposed to what, being a good "con" and doing what?
I would like some background to what I can only parse as a retarded attempt to politicize with a statement that must've taken a whole 5 braincells to parrot.
These guys claim we have 20-30 years at the current rare we're using Zinc. It's the 23rd most abundant element in the earth's crust. I don't see this being an issue right now (2011), but will inevitably be one
what *else* do these surface proteins on the T cell do?
maybe there is something those altered structures do that we will miss when they stop performing their function...
not everything in the body is superfluous like the appendix or wisdom teeth.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Haven't we learned not to modify T-Cells already?
The world is going to end in 2012 anyway so why worry.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
sorry. I had to.
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
But this technology may provide a way to defend against this virus. By changing the "shape" of our T-cells it will prevent the virus from recognizing its target. This would render it ineffective and be effective against the numerous variants.
Of course, this is still early in the development cycle. There's always the chance of unintended consequences...
Talk about completely misreading even the one paragraph blurb. Zinc fingers are a large group of protein sub-structures which are used to interact with DNA. This group used them to induce a specific mutation which now seems to be HIV resistant How long this will last is really up in the air though, HIV and all other RNA viruses evolve very quickly.
"Researchers Throw Finger at HIV"
That sounds like a great plan. Insert errors into our genetic code until the virus leaves us alone. That's got to work.
Because....
We run out of zinc, jackass!!!
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
As opposed to what, being a good "con" and doing what?
Conning people?
Ignore this signature. By order.
I know this is offtopic to the article, but ontopic to the parent post.
Just because the Mayans calendar ended then means what exactly? They didn't even invent, let alone UTILIZE the wheel...
I'm glad this was modded funny and not informative, every time someone says this I die a little inside...
What happens when someone with AIDS rapes someone?
What happens when someone with AIDS passes it along to their unborn child (a rare occasion now due to modern medicine)?
Get off your high horse tool. Some people are infected not because of their behavior, but fate. A fix should be available for them, as well as everyone else infected.
Just because the Mayans calendar ended then means what exactly? They didn't even invent, let alone UTILIZE the wheel...
Not only that but they were able to predict "the end of the world" and yet utterly failed to foresee the end of their own civilization?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The world's gonna end on Diablo III's release date?
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
That's pretty much what all AIDS drugs have attempted to do, thus far. Making fake cells seems problematic, since you would have to replace the patient's own cells with them until all the virus has been "cleaned up." But interrupting the life cycle of the virus is the main goal of therapy. Viruses typically use enzymes and proteins to move in and out of human cells. Influenza, for example, uses hemagglutinin to break its way into the cell, then later uses neuraminidase to break back out when it's ready to spread further. If you can somehow block the action of either of these proteins, you have managed to disrupt the viral life cycle. If it can't spread, it should eventually die off. Thus, if a doctor gives you medicine to fight a bad flu, he's probably giving you what is called a "neuraminidase inhibitor." Scientists have tried to create many HIV drugs along similar lines. The problem, as always, is that the HIV virus mutates so rapidly that you can't assume that what worked an hour ago will still work now (literally).
Breakfast served all day!
I know this is offtopic to the article, but ontopic to the parent post.
Don't apologize... it's the way discussions are supposed to work. Too bad that more mods don't realize it.
This post is, sadly, only tangentally ontopic since I'm replying to something that wasn't the main point of your poost. Alas.
What could possibly go wrong?
I guess when Isaac Asimov was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion he deserved to get sick and die!
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
For years I've heard of HIV research focusing on either slowing the spread of HIV or focusing on killing the virus.
This solution instead makes it so the virus will have no effect. I would imagine that a HIV infected victim that has not been vacinated should even be able to receive immunized T-cell injections or even pill supplements.
The approach to this problem just reminds me of the kid that suggested letting the air out of the tires of the bus stuck in the tunnel. Of course it's obviously much more technical to modify T-cells in laboratories, but the beauty of the approach is equally elegant
Just because the Mayans calendar ended then means what exactly? They didn't even invent, let alone UTILIZE the wheel...
Not only that but they were able to predict "the end of the world" and yet utterly failed to foresee the end of their own civilization?
This isn't actually true. The Mayan long count actually continues after 2012. The Mayans actually thought the world wouldn't end until sometime around 3000. The cause for the misinterpretation is in the way the Mayans wrote the date. There's a whole other digit that usually gets left out, because they saw no need to write the entire long count for things thousands of years in the future, but on a handful of totems you can actually see the entire long count for the end of the world date, and it's not until the 3000s, so we're good for a while.
No, we run out of zinc in 2011 and the end of the world comes in 2012.
We could just move the end of the world forward by one year to solve the problem.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
I guess when Isaac Asimov was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion he deserved to get sick and die!
Absolutely, according to the original poster he shouldn't have had a transfusion without a condom, so it was completely his fault. (details are left as an exercise to the reader).
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Mod +1 relieved
Phew
Get the EULA T-shirt
As it happens errors in the CCR5 receptor occur naturally and with a significant frequency, mainly in European populations. This 'delta32' mutation results in a defective receptor, but the people with it are healthy. There is also a drugs on the market, maraviroc, that specifically inhibits CCR5. People with the CCR5-Delta32 mutation are 'long term non progressors', they carry the virus but don't develop AIDS, probably because the virus is incapable of destroying their immune system. HIV is actually found in variants that use the CCR5 or CXCR4 receptors as co-receptors to enter cells. Apparently X4-tropic viruses, while deadly, have a limited effect on people with uncompromised immune systems. Most infections are with R5, and X4 strains evolve in the later stages of disease. I don't think anybody as yet understands why, but this is a very reproducible occurrence.