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Italian Team Cures Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome With the Help of HIV
New submitter tchernobog writes "An Italian team funded by Telethon and S. Raffaele of Milan, was able to cure six kids affected by lethal genetic diseases (in Italian, English video): the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and the metachromatic leukodystrophy. This is the culmination of a project lasted 15 years, and which cost more than 30M €; the researchers published some preliminary results last year in Nature, and are waiting for the results on more patients to submit another. The really interesting part is: they used a mix of advanced genetic techniques to achieve this result. Firstly, the DNA of a defective cell is corrected with a gene assembled in the lab. This procedure has been very dangerous for the past 20 years: that it can even be used is a good achievement alone. Secondly, the corrected DNA is propagated in the patient's body using a stripped-down version of HIV, of which less than 10% of its original genome remains. Might the feared HIV in reality prove to be salvation for some?"
Soon after, the Italian government put them in prison on charges of manslaughter for not curing all genetic illnesses when clearly they could have saved lives. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/us-italy-earthquake-court-idUSBRE89L0WM20121022
I'll be excited when they announce catgirls.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
http://xkcd.com/938/
So... they can make a disease now that re-sequences our DNA? Anyone else find that terrifying?
HIV kills the sinful but cures the sick. There's no inconsistency.
I hate this misuse of fundamentalists. Call them extremists. Those people are not basing their ideology on the fundamentals. There is no Biblical foundation for believing this way.
I hope this isn't the real-world beginnings of the t-Virus.
But they claim that they do. And in in the case of religion, if you take out the spurious claims, you're basically left with no beliefs at all.
I just heard last week about HIV being used in cancer treatment as well. It seems like HIV is turning out to be a very useful virus. Interesting that something so destructive can be used for so much good. Perhaps a metaphor for something.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Superstitions aside, this is an amazing Nobel grade development, if peer reviewed and confirmed of course.
HIV kills the sinful but cures the sick. There's no inconsistency.
Why don't they call it the XOR virus instead?
Ezekiel 23:20
There have been a number of these headlines the past few years and they all use the sensationalist headline of "HIV CURES DISEASE" which simply is not true. What is true is that genetic mechanisms that HIV, a lentivirus, uses to engineer cells are being re-purposed for medical benefit. The basic technique has been used in the laboratory for ages but the big headline here is not HIV but genetic engineering. This is as much HIV helping to cure a disease as getting X-rays at the dentist amounts to "DEATH RAY HELPS PREVENT CAVITIES!"
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Only science can turn a scourge into a cure!
So say we all
These stories always play off the "we're using scary HIV to cure you" angle, but they're just using components stolen from the HIV virus as tools or building-blocks to make something useful.
You might as well write a story that portrays bear-skin rugs as scary and dangerous because they were once part of a whole live bear.
And actually pretty much all of our recombinant DNA tools as well as many drugs like antibiotics are simply ancient things we stole from bacteria and other life forms. Somewhat annoyingly, Nature and 3+ billion years of evolution are still a lot better than we are at inventing things.
My definition of modern biology that I use to introduce it to computer people is: Hacking into ancient alien computer systems (stochastic digital computers not designed by the mind of man) to look for technology we can steal to cure cancer, solve world hunger, and produce renewable energy as well as whatever else we discover along the way.
G.
We didn't steal fire, we just infringed on the gods' patents.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
MITx is offering the second session of their free massively open course 7.00x on Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life taught by one of the best teachers I have ever listened to, Eric Lander of MIT, which starts on Sept 10th:
https://www.edx.org/course/mit/7-00x/introduction-biology-secret-life/1014
This class is mostly about the molecular biology machinery that makes cells work, and it should be fascinating to anyone who finds the way computers work interesting because most of what goes on at the cellular level is actually information processing and digital operations (though based on stochastic principles).
Warning: this class might make you want to (or wish you could) change your career path...
G.
It is here folks, we just did it, and we did it on a living human being. Take a moment to think about what that means.
It's cool. HIV has been around long enough that that patents on it have all expired.
I say call them "strawmanists"; there arent really that many people who believe in the strawman GP has constructed.
And actually, to most Christians, the source of disease would typically be seen as random mutations, which God allowed after the fall. Is it random chance that it affects gays and drug abusers the most? Quite the coincidence, but hard to say. But ultimately, the ability to turn bad around for good is what God specializes in.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
...which God allowed after the fall.
That 'God' has a torture chamber and 'allows' things at all is a sure sign that your making this God thing up, bubbie. Oy!
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
There are enough of them around that, depending on where you live, you could bump into them regularly in public places. There is also enough variation between areas of the US and even within some towns and cities, so that some places you won't bump into any, or they are so far in the minority they won't be outgoing or vocal about things. But then there are places where they are more common and vocal. I've overheard plenty of such conversations on buses, planes and in parks, and have had people try to start conversations with me about such topics. I've at least been approached by them more often than I've passed by a Scientologist information table. I can't say much for absolute numbers, especially since most people of nearly any belief can function without bringing up religion every couple minutes in conversation, but definitely not zero or virtually non-existent.
Warning: This product might give you nausea, dry mouth, or AIDS.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
they pass on HIV DNA into the human genome? BRILLIANT.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
This is not in the subset of posts I've made that I consider insightful. This is a case where I posted something I knew to be flamebait because I thought it was funny, but it's not a very good argument. :-/
you're basically left with no beliefs at all.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It's cool. HIV has been around long enough that that patents on it have all expired.
yeah but its genome would still be covered by copyright
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Speak for yourself. I plan on going up in the rapture with Jesus...
Meh, no doubt so did most people present during the monologue of Matthew 16:27-28.
Ha ha, but clearly the joke was on them because Jesus must have known that the Wandering Jew was standing just behind the disciples. I mean, that's basic Occam's Razor, right?
Right?
I'm not a geneticist, but I'm guessing any retrovirus could be used. HIV is likely used because its been the focus of the most research, and thus the genome is well known and cultures are readily available.
Your post probably lies somewhere in the intersection of the set of insightful postings, funny postings and "oops, I accidentally" postings.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
I would call myself evangelical, and Ive only ever heard the position stated above coming from "the other side of the debate", or the WBC (whom noone takes seriously and can hardly be described as either fundamentalist or evangelical).
That's why the scientists got rid of most of the genome. All that's left should be covered by Fair Use, right?
Nah, what God specializes in is to create havoc on the world, Man desperately tries to remedy his mistakes. What Man excels at is inventing new infantile fairies in the sky that are cause of this, that or the other.
The good news is that we got everything out and you will be fine.
The bad news is that we confused you with another patient and amputated your legs.
Is still only 5 million per life saved, which I think is a fair bargain. That's of course if they simply stop there. 30M for the development of a single drug is chump change in Pharma industry. 30M for a process that will define a whole new branch of medicine is amazing.