HIV/AIDS Cure

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not a treatment, a cure.

As Gupta explains the case and cure in question, a 40-year-old American working in Berlin had been HIV-positive for 10 years. The patient’s HIV infection had been under control for four years with “conventional HAART treatment regimen” (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy).

When the patient developed leukemia, however, a bone marrow transplant of stem cells was done using standard protocol, which Gupta said includes radiation therapy and chemotherapy prior to the transplant.

“Remember, once you stop HIV drugs, the HIV viral count rises very rapidly, usually within a few days to a week,” Gupta said.

According to Gupta, Huetter, the German physician treating the American, deliberately chose a stem cell donor who had a gene mutation known as “CCR-5 Delta- 32,” rather than using the best matched donor.

Gupta said Huetter remembered research first observed in 1996 - research Gupta said is well known in the scientific community. That research found that certain gay men in the San Francisco area remained uninfected with HIV in spite of engaging in risky sexual activities. As it was later discovered, those men had the CCR-5 Delta-32 gene mutation.

As it turned out, the patient’s stem cell transplant was a success, Gupta said, even though the patient had to have a second stem cell transplant (from the same donor) when his leukemia relapsed.

“This patient has been off all his HIV drugs for two years now,” Gupta said. “He continues to show no detectable signs of HIV in all the known places HIV is detected — no signs of HIV in his blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, intestines or brain.” Also, the patient’s T-cell count remains normal.

Thus, according to Gupta, within the limits of scientists’ ability to detect HIV, it appears this patient’s HIV has been “eradicated.”

That's pretty impressive claim.
http://www.baldwincountynow.com/arti...1598814432.txt

[TheMercenary]

Wow. That would be revolutionary. Take that all you fundies who didn't want us to use fetal stem cells.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Wow. That would be revolutionary. Take that all you fundies who didn't want us to use fetal stem cells.

or embryonic stem cells. Stupids.


Yea for Stem Cells!!! (ALL kinds)

[classicman]

Thats awesome! Now how long will it take for big Pharma to take over and make it cost 1000 times what it should?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Wow. That would be revolutionary. Take that all you fundies who didn't want us to use fetal stem cells.

I would guess that those fundies aren't going to think that a cure for AIDS--thus allowing these deviants to escape God's punishment for their sinful behavior--is a good thing. Mark my words, this will be used by some as further proof that we shouldn't be experimenting with stem cells.

[Pie]

Speaking from personal experience, stem cell transplants are dangerous as all fuck. Far more dangerous than AIDS.

You wouldn't wish one on your worst enemy. Unless they had the Big C.

...And, fuck cancer.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Cancer was why they did it, the AIDS disappearing was an unexpected surprise.

[toranokaze]

one small step for evolution

[Pie]

The CCR5-delta 32 mutation that is associated with lowered AIDS virus penetration of macrophages was also instrumental in the survival of certain populations during the bubonic plague (or possibly other diseases, such as smallpox or a proposed hemorrhagic plague).

AIDS may be the latest disease in a long chain that select for this variant.

[ZenGum]

"CCR5-delta32" .... it has a kind of ring to it. A rhythm.

c-c-r-five delta thirty-two!
c-c-r-five delta thirty-two!
c-c-r-five delta thirty-two!

There is some kind of uber-nerd hip-hop rap in this.

[classicman]

I'm a thread bumper today ...

Doctors claim to have "functional cure" for HIV

CBS News correspondent Hank Plante, with San Francisco affiliate KCBS, reports that 45-year-old Timothy Ray Brown, now living in the Bay Area, tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but now has entered the scientific journals as the first man in world history to have his HIV completely eliminated from his body. It's what doctors call a "functional cure."

He was living in Berlin, Germany, in 2007, dealing with HIV and leukemia, when scientists there gave him a bone marrow, stem cell transplant that had astounding results.

"I quit taking my HIV medication on the day that I got the transplant and haven't had to take any since," Brown says, adding that his diseases are effectively gone.

In fact, his only medical problem these days is one involving his speech and motor skills because of neurological damage after the treatment, but that's getting better.

"The Berlin Patient," as Brown is known, received stem cells from a donor who was immune to HIV. In fact, about one percent of Caucasians are immune to HIV. Some say it goes back to the Great Plague; People who survived the plague developed an immunity, and that immunity was passed down to their heirs today.

Brown says being the first man to be cured of HIV makes him very, very happy.

Needless to say, Brown is now being monitored by doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and here at UCSF, where we sought out a medical opinion from one of the most respected AIDS researchers in the world, Dr. Jay Levy, who was one of the co-discoverers of the HIV virus.

"If you're able to take the white cells from someone and manipulate them so they're no longer infectable by HIV, and those white cells become the whole immune system of that individual, you've got essentially what we call a functional cure," Dr. Levy says.

link

Excellent!

[glatt]

It's a nice step forward, but a bone marrow transplant is not cheap, so it will be out of reach to the overwhelming majority of worldwide AIDS patients, and you need those 1% of whites who are immune to AIDS to be identified and be willing to donate their bone marrow. It's hard enough finding people willing to donate blood. Marrow donation is a much more invasive and painful procedure.

Much better would be some sort of vaccine you could manufacture on a large scale.

[classicman]

Agreed, but isn't this a great first step in creating something like a vaccine?