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Researchers Zero In On Protein That Destroys HIV

Posted by Soulskill on from the discovering-the-crucial-bazooka-protein dept.

Julie188 writes with this excerpt from a Loyola University news release: "Using a $225,000 microscope, researchers have identified the key components of a protein called TRIM5a that destroys HIV in rhesus monkeys. The finding could lead to new TRIM5a-based treatments that would knock out HIV in humans, said senior researcher Edward M. Campbell, PhD, of Loyola University Health System."

3 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. $225,000 by the_banjomatic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sounds like promising research, but I'm confused by why the cost of the microscope is prominently displayed in both the press release and TFS. Is $225,000 considered cheap or expensive for a microscope these days?

  2. Re:Oblig Rodney Dangerfield by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The '70s will be back! You young guys are gonna love it, but the prostitutes will hate it. Back then, having sex with a woman was no bigger a deal than smoking a joint (that we were convinced would be legal once our generation took over... ha), and the best pickup line was "wanna fuck?" and women would come up to YOU and ask that.

    AIDS killed it. If this works, you guys are in for some great times.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  3. Re:So which drug company is going to buy the by yyxx · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That depends on what you call a "cure". You probably carry hundreds of nearly dormant viruses around that your body can never get rid of. Yet, you wouldn't consider yourself "ill".

    If they can introduce TRIM5a into human cells and get it expressed, people would end up not needing drugs, not being infectious, and not having any symptoms. That's about as "cured" as you are of many other viral diseases.