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Gene Therapy May Thwart HIV
sciencehabit writes "Over the past few years, a man living in Berlin, Timothy Brown, has become world famous as the first — and thus far only — person to apparently have been cured of his HIV infection. Brown's HIV disappeared after he developed leukemia and doctors gave him repeated blood transfusions from a donor who harbored a mutated version of a receptor the virus uses to enter cells. Now, researchers report promising results from two small gene-therapy studies that mimic this strategy, hinting that the field may be moving closer to a cure that works for the masses."
Then you know what it will do? Put thousands of people out of work!
Think of the Pharmacists!
The delta CCR5 mutation was already well known, and the subject of several (at least 4) different experimental receptor blocking and gene therapy medications, all of which were blocked by the FDA citing safety concerns.
This is not meant to be a conspiracy theorist bottom feeding post, but simply intended to inform. There have been many studies of this mutation for thereputic uses conducted in Europe over the past decade, including seeveral promising phase 2 trials.
Like most life saving medications though, any prospective cure for HIV will probably be developed in the US, and approved in Europe. (Then approved in the US after decades of routine use overseas.)
While this particular gene therapy might be new, the mechanism is not novel.
The difference is, with this, all someone has to do is patent the gene and then they can charge whatever they want.
At least with spaceships and computers, you actually have to create something.
Well shit, I guess I still have malaria.
I'll trade in the pharmacists for unfettered, unprotected sex for all. A world without STDs would be an awesome world, indeed. Seinfeld's dream of an intercourse hello would be realized.
Um. HIV is one that gives people the chills today but there are other STD's. Some, like genital herpes are highly contageous and incurable. Hepatitis C is less contageous but also incurable and potentially lethal. There are even antibiotic resistance forms of gonorrhea.
I doubt not. Think of all the vaccines you're covered by now. Influenza, Polio, Hepatitis, etc. Those don't cost very much. Most Americans can afford those now. The deal with this is that it is probably only going to end up being a few treatments before you're fully cured so medical bills won't rack up. The other thing about this is that HIV is so widespread there will be plenty of donation money for those who can't afford it in the case that the cure turns out to be expensive.
I thought South Park had definitively proven that Magic Johnson was able to cure his AIDS through all the money he's earned?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
You're completely forgetting the religious aspect. Only fornicators destined for hell are going to get AIDS. Clearly we need to bomb the free clinic.
Also, it causes autism.
Jesus! It's not that I don't agree with you more or less, but why don't you and science get a room?
Doctors do not cure. Not in America. They treat. They can't make a money off of you for as long as you live if they cure you. If they treat you, they can milk you until you die.
Why does something so stupid always modded up to "Insightful?"
The cure means that your patients have a real shot at rebuilding their lives and finances. It means that they will be a candidate for other medical services for perhaps the next half century or more.
The cure opens the door to the understanding and treatment of other diseases.
The cure is elusive. The cure may have side effects. The cure may dangerous. The surgical procedure that a weakened patient may not survive.
The geek doesn't want medicine.
What he wants is magic and miracle at a discount price.
And all those Polio treatments.
No, the treatment they are working on is gene therapy, not the transplant that seems to have cured the man. They are related, but not the same.
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"The survival rate of a bone marrow transplant is around 40% even in the best hospitals in the world."
The survival rate for people dying of nasty forms of leukemia who get a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor when they're already on death's door might be about 40%, but the procedure itself isn't nearly that dangerous. Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant has a mortality rate around 5% on average, and groups who specialize in it are getting quite a bit better than that. Presumably that's what you'd do to treat - extract a patient's HSCs, genetically modify them, immunoablate, then inject the HSCs to reconstitute the immune system in HIV resistant form.
Uh, the HPV vaccine IS for the types of HPV that cause cancer. That's the entire point of the vaccination program. It is not a cure for all possible types of cervical cancer (only ~60% of them) but the HPV strains it vaccinates against are those linked to cancer + some other common ones (to encourage men to get the vaccine too and thus promote herd immunity).
Not really. To breed resistant strains of anything you need to have survivors. For example, the big problem with antibiotic resistant tuberculosis is people being non-compliant with their antibiotic regimes. So they get it, take the course for a few weeks or so and feel better, and then decide to stop taking the pills or start being lazy about keeping up to the schedule (which is 6-24 months).
As a result, they haven't actually cleared the entire infection, instead they've neatly selected for the slightly more antibiotic resistant strains of TB, which they may end up passing off into the general population if they become infectious again.
TB is particularly prone to this since it's difficult to treat in the first case (somewhat antibiotic resistant by nature, requiring prolonged treatments). It is much, much harder to develop resistance when you wipe out the entire population of something in one hit since there are no survivors to reproduce a new resistant strain.
Or are a victim of a sexual assault. Or suffer a needlestick injury as a doctor treating someone with HIV (or have incidental blood-blood contact through say broken skin). Or if your partner of 10 years cheats on you. Or if the condom fails.
Umm, on the incurable front there's still Hepatitis C, HPV (thanks to Michele Bachmann), and good ol' Herpes to worry about.
All I said was "that piece of halibut was good enough for jehovah"
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons