Scientists on brink of HIV cure

[natina]

Scientists on brink of HIV cure


Researchers believe that there will be a breakthrough in finding a cure for HIV “within months”.

Danish scientists are expecting results that will show that “finding a mass-distributable and affordable cure to HIV is possible”.
They are conducting clinical trials to test a “novel strategy” in which the HIV virus is stripped from human DNA and destroyed permanently by the immune system.
The move would represent a dramatic step forward in the attempt to find a cure for the virus, which causes Aids.
The scientists are currently conducting human trials on their treatment, in the hope of proving that it is effective. It has already been found to work in laboratory tests.
The technique involves releasing the HIV virus from “reservoirs” it forms inside DNA, bringing it to the surface of the cells. Once it comes to the surface, the body’s natural immune system can kill the virus through being boosted by a “vaccine”.
In vitro studies — those that use human cells in a laboratory — of the new technique proved so successful that in January, the Danish Research Council awarded the team 12 million Danish kroner (£1.5 million) to pursue their findings in clinical trials with human subjects.
These are now under way, and according to Dr Ole Søgaard, a senior researcher at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark and part of the research team, the early signs are “promising”.
“I am almost certain that we will be successful in releasing the reservoirs of HIV," he said.
“The challenge will be getting the patients’ immune system to recognise the virus and destroy it. This depends on the strength and sensitivity of individual immune systems.”
Fifteen patients are currently taking part in the trials, and if any of them are found to have successfully been cured of HIV, the “cure” will be tested on a wider scale, aided by an immune system booster.
Dr Søgaard stressed that a cure is not the same as a preventative vaccine, and that raising awareness of unsafe behaviour, including unprotected sex and sharing needles, remains of paramount importance in combating HIV.

In vitro studies — those that use human cells in a laboratory — of the new technique proved so successful that in January, the Danish Research Council awarded the team 12 million Danish kroner (£1.5 million) to pursue their findings in clinical trials with human subjects.
These are now under way, and according to Dr Ole Søgaard, a senior researcher at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark and part of the research team, the early signs are “promising”.
“I am almost certain that we will be successful in releasing the reservoirs of HIV," he said.
“The challenge will be getting the patients’ immune system to recognise the virus and destroy it. This depends on the strength and sensitivity of individual immune systems.”
Fifteen patients are currently taking part in the trials, and if any of them are found to have successfully been cured of HIV, the “cure” will be tested on a wider scale, aided by an immune system booster.
Dr Søgaard stressed that a cure is not the same as a preventative vaccine, and that raising awareness of unsafe behaviour, including unprotected sex and sharing needles, remains of paramount importance in combating HIV.
With modern HIV treatment, a patient can live an almost normal life, even into old age, with limited side effects.
However, if medication is stopped, HIV reservoirs become active and start to produce more of the virus, meaning that symptoms can reappear within two weeks.
Finding a cure would free a patient from the need to take continuous HIV medication, and save health services billions of pounds.
The technique is being researched in Britain, but studies have not yet moved on to the clinical trial stage. Five universities — Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, London, University College, London and King’s College, London — have jointly formed the Collaborative HIV Eradication of Reservoirs UK Biomedical Research Centre group (CHERUB), which is dedicated to finding an HIV cure.
They have applied to the Medical Research Council for funding to conduct clinical trials, which will seek to combine techniques to release the reservoirs of HIV with immunotherapy to destroy the virus.
In addition, they are focusing on patients that have only recently been infected, as they believe this will improve chances of a cure. The group hopes to receive a funding decision in May.
“When the first patient is cured in this way it will be a spectacular moment,” says Dr John Frater, a clinical research fellow at the Nuffield School of Medicine, Oxford University, and a member of the CHERUB group.
“It will prove that we are heading in the right direction and demonstrate that a cure is possible. But I think it will be five years before we see a cure that can be offered on a large scale.”
The Danish team’s research is among the most advanced and fast moving in the world, as that they have streamlined the process of putting the latest basic science discoveries into clinical testing.
This means that researchers can progress more quickly to clinical trials, accelerating the process and reaching reliable results sooner than many others.
The technique uses drugs called HDAC Inhibitors, which are more commonly used in treating cancer, to drive out the HIV from a patient’s DNA. The Danish researchers are using a particularly powerful type of HDAC inhibitor called Panobinostat.
Five years ago, the general consensus was that HIV could not be cured. But then Timothy Ray Brown, an HIV sufferer — who has become known in the field as the Berlin Patient — developed leukaemia.
He had a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that made his cells resistant to HIV. As a result, in 2007 Mr Brown became the first man to ever be fully cured of the disease.
Replicating this procedure on a mass scale is impossible. Nevertheless, the Brown case caused a sea change in research, with scientists focusing on finding a cure as well as suppressing the symptoms.
Two principal approaches are currently being pursued. The first, gene therapy, aims to make a patient’s immune system resistant to HIV. This is complex and expensive, and not easily transferrable to diverse gene pools around the world.
The second approach is the one being pursued by Dr Søgaard and his colleagues in Denmark, the CHERUB group in Britain, and by other laboratories in the United States and Europe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10022664/Scientists-on-brink-of-HIV-cure.html

[Winkle]

Interesting read thanks natina.

[Willie Escalade]

Government might hold it back for selfish reasons...

[Prospero]

what reasons Willie?

[LibertyHarkness]

pharmaceutical companies will be pissing their pants if it works ...

[MacShreach]

Government might hold it back for selfish reasons...

I am certain this cure, when it comes to market, which will not be for many years even if the basic science is correct, will be extremely expensive, but given the cost of maintaining an HIV pos person for many years, I can't imagine why any enlightened health-care system would even think twice.

But since you are in the USA you may be thinking of some other reasons...

[Prospero]

Well there are the conspiracy theories that AIDS was spread among the black community by the Government... but I doubt if Willie buys into that well debunked notion

Liberty is right. Big Pharma will be upset which, as MacScreach says, is why the price will be immense if this proves to be a "breakthrough."

[Prospero]

What would also be wonderful is immunisation against HIV. But since it is an RNA virus, which can constantly and rapidly mutate (like the flu virus which caused the pandemic in 1918 which killed around 100 million people globally) this is unlikely (as I understand it.)

[MacShreach]

pharmaceutical companies will be pissing their pants if it works ...

Maybe. Big pharma makes money only in the patent life of any drug, which is maximum 15 years (less in some circumstances). In that time they have to make back the r&d costs of running their businesses, which are huge. Most drugs never make it to market; they fail along the way. A small number of drugs has to make a lot of money, which is why cutting-edge drugs are so expensive.

This is all fine and dandy but there is a major moral and political issue with AIDS which is epidemic in parts of the world, especially very poor parts of the world, where they won't be able to afford these drugs. Some governments have let it be known that they will simply ignore the patent treaties and make their own. (This already happens.) Since the basic science behind all these drugs is public-domain, all they need to do is adapt existing production facilities.

The only thing protecting the pharma investment is that everyone abides by the rules that protect the intellectual property within a product, since the actual production costs are minute. The whole concept of ownership of intellectual property is on very shaky ground and sooner or later will have to be revised. It's hard to see what would force that quicker than legitimate governments effectively engaging in copyright theft in order to save their people from an appalling death. It is a dilemma with very sharp horns.

Almost certainly, solutions will be worked out which attempt to supply third-world countries with drugs at far lower cost than the developed world, which, again, happens already, and has led to a substantial black market in 'prescription' drugs. Whether or not this would remain acceptable to governments and health insurance companies who did not benefit from it is not certain at all.

As they say at home, it's a can of worms. A cure would be wonderful, but I am sure the big pharma bosses (who also make money from maintenance drugs used in the treatment of AIDS) will be very nervous about it indeed.

[Willie Escalade]

pharmaceutical companies will be pissing their pants if it works ...
Bingo. :Bowdown:

[TSLoverIB]

Maybe. Big pharma makes money only in the patent life of any drug, which is maximum 15 years (less in some circumstances). In that time they have to make back the r&d costs of running their businesses, which are huge. Most drugs never make it to market; they fail along the way. A small number of drugs has to make a lot of money, which is why cutting-edge drugs are so expensive.

This is all fine and dandy but there is a major moral and political issue with AIDS which is epidemic in parts of the world, especially very poor parts of the world, where they won't be able to afford these drugs. Some governments have let it be known that they will simply ignore the patent treaties and make their own. (This already happens.) Since the basic science behind all these drugs is public-domain, all they need to do is adapt existing production facilities.

The only thing protecting the pharma investment is that everyone abides by the rules that protect the intellectual property within a product, since the actual production costs are minute. The whole concept of ownership of intellectual property is on very shaky ground and sooner or later will have to be revised. It's hard to see what would force that quicker than legitimate governments effectively engaging in copyright theft in order to save their people from an appalling death. It is a dilemma with very sharp horns.

Almost certainly, solutions will be worked out which attempt to supply third-world countries with drugs at far lower cost than the developed world, which, again, happens already, and has led to a substantial black market in 'prescription' drugs. Whether or not this would remain acceptable to governments and health insurance companies who did not benefit from it is not certain at all.

As they say at home, it's a can of worms. A cure would be wonderful, but I am sure the big pharma bosses (who also make money from maintenance drugs used in the treatment of AIDS) will be very nervous about it indeed.


I agree, if in fact they do create such a " Cure ", they are many sides that will eventually come to light.
Drug companies do not make money with "Cures" ?
Can Drug companies make money with "Cures" and provide low cost of the same drugs, or life progressing drugs to third world countries?

With Drug companies making money, in either case, i can see a "Cure" is possible.

The main only other question will be, is AIDS-HIV is cured, how long will it be before a new illness comes to light ?

How long exactly was HIV around in the world before it came to light in humanity? Some documents suggest HIV cases were around in the mid 60's.

Is there another illness lurking around undiscovered, or yet to hit the masses, the new forms of HIV, being HIV2, Bird Flu's, Etc,Etc.

As fantastic as world would seem to be able to have sex freely, they are as always consequences, as population grows and grows, some say illnesses are ways of population controls.

We will only see as the the future progresses, as the past has shown us, the Romans, History, possibly, only protected sex will become the normal, who knows.

[Westheangelino]

Everyone needs to watch the documentary How to Survive a Plague. In the beginnings of AIDS in America, there were people dying in staggering numbers, often alone, and NO ONE gave a damn save for the gay activists who refused to let their friends die while the government did nothing. Trust me, they will not allow a cure to be held back.

[TSLoverIB]

Ill keep that in mind West

I tell you, there are some freaky movies about these viruses, freaky in the sense that its unreal what they can do to humanity.

I saw " And the band played on " once, and it was frightening.

[natina]

there are several cures for AIDS

BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT

GENE THERAPY

MANY ARE VERY DANGEROUS

some only work on certain people

[TempestTS]

Maybe. Big pharma makes money only in the patent life of any drug, which is maximum 15 years (less in some circumstances). In that time they have to make back the r&d costs of running their businesses, which are huge. Most drugs never make it to market; they fail along the way. A small number of drugs has to make a lot of money, which is why cutting-edge drugs are so expensive.

This is all fine and dandy but there is a major moral and political issue with AIDS which is epidemic in parts of the world, especially very poor parts of the world, where they won't be able to afford these drugs. Some governments have let it be known that they will simply ignore the patent treaties and make their own. (This already happens.) Since the basic science behind all these drugs is public-domain, all they need to do is adapt existing production facilities.

The only thing protecting the pharma investment is that everyone abides by the rules that protect the intellectual property within a product, since the actual production costs are minute. The whole concept of ownership of intellectual property is on very shaky ground and sooner or later will have to be revised. It's hard to see what would force that quicker than legitimate governments effectively engaging in copyright theft in order to save their people from an appalling death. It is a dilemma with very sharp horns.

Almost certainly, solutions will be worked out which attempt to supply third-world countries with drugs at far lower cost than the developed world, which, again, happens already, and has led to a substantial black market in 'prescription' drugs. Whether or not this would remain acceptable to governments and health insurance companies who did not benefit from it is not certain at all.

As they say at home, it's a can of worms. A cure would be wonderful, but I am sure the big pharma bosses (who also make money from maintenance drugs used in the treatment of AIDS) will be very nervous about it indeed.

Big Pharma makes profits in the BILLIONS - their CEO's are some of the best paid CEO's in the world

Tell me again how they are struggling to make back R&D costs? I think I might have missed something.

Edit ) OK pasting tables in HA sucks - but you boys and girls are smart youll figure it out


Revenues Profits Rank Company Fortune 500 rank $ millions % change from 2010 $ millions % change from 2010 1 Pfizer (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/324.html) 40 67,932.0 0.2 10,009.0 21.2 2 Johnson & Johnson (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/235.html) 42 65,030.0 5.6 9,672.0 -27.5 3 Merck (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/280.html) 57 48,047.0 4.5 6,272.0 628.5 4 Abbott Laboratories (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/4.html) 71 38,851.3 10.5 4,728.4 2.2 5 Eli Lilly (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/259.html) 119 24,286.5 5.2 4,347.7 -14.2 6 Bristol-Myers Squibb (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/64.html) 134 21,244.0 9.0 3,709.0 19.6 7 Amgen (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/1057.html) 168 15,582.0 3.5 3,683.0 -20.4 8 Gilead Sciences (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/11185.html) 306 8,385.4 5.5 2,803.6 -3.4 9 Mylan (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/11043.html) 396 6,129.8 12.5 536.8 55.5 10 Allergan (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/1025.html) 448 5,419.1 10.2 934.5 155650.0 11 Biogen Idec (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/11136.html) 476 5,048.6 7.0 1,234.4 22.8 12 Celgene (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/11502.html) 492 4,842.1 33.5 1,318.2 49.7

[Sulka_bewitched_me]

The Dutch are on to a potential cure for HIV/AIDS so if their research turns out to be a cure then I GUARANTEE that the porn industry and its performers will go back to being condom free regardless of the STD thing. So....to answer the original OP's question: yes TS porn as will all porn will most likely be bareback. As to if it's in two years well that depends on how long the medical trials for efficacy take. Not to be conceited but I actually was the first to bring this to light in another post about "http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/images/ca_serenity/misc/subscribed.gif Within Two Years Will All TS Porn Be Bareback? (http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=77398)" I'll take my bow now.:Bowdown:

[envivision]

Everybody knows that HIV was created by the CIA in order to destroy the minorities in America, namely the Blacks and the Latinos. Now that the Blacks and the Latinos are in charge of the government, a cure for HIV is 'discovered' by the 'Danish' . Concidence, I think not!

[Quiet Reflections]

im sure the are close...... just like the last few times some research group got close. I will believe when I see it.

[natina]

Man Cured of AIDS Virus: 1st U.S. News Conference

First and Only Man Cured of HIV Wants to Start Foundation

http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20120724/man-cured-of-aids-virus-news-conference

BREAKING NEWS!: Immunity Gene ‘Cures’ Bay Area Man Of AIDS

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) — A 45-year-old man now living in the Bay Area may be the first person ever cured of the deadly disease AIDS, the result of the discovery of an apparent HIV immunity gene.
Timothy Ray Brown tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but has now entered scientific journals as the first man in world history to have that HIV virus completely eliminated from his body in what doctors call a “functional cure.”

Brown was living in Berlin, Germany back 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 the day that I got the transplant and haven’t had to take any since,” said Brown, who has been dubbed “The Berlin Patient” by the medical community.
Brown’s amazing progress continues to be monitored by doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and at the University of California at San Francisco medical center.
“I’m cured of HIV. I had HIV but I don’t anymore,” he said, using words that many in the scientific community are cautiously clinging to.
Scientists said Brown received stem cells from a donor who was immune to HIV. In fact, about one percent of Caucasians are immune to HIV. Some researchers think the immunity gene goes back to the Great Plague: people who survived the plague passed their immunity down and their heirs have it today.
UCSF’s Dr. Jay Levy, who co-discovered the HIV virus and is one of the most respected AIDS researchers in the world, said this case opens the door to the field of “cure research,” which is now gaining more attention.
“If you’re able to take the white cells from someone and manipulate them so they’re no longer infected, or infectable, no longer infectable by HIV, and those white cells become the whole immune system of that individual, you’ve got essentially a functional cure,” he explained.
UCSF’s Dr. Paul Volberding, another pioneering AIDS expert who has studied the disease for all of its 30 years cautioned that while “the Berlin Patient is a fascinating story, it’s not one that can be generalized.”
Both doctors stressed that Brown’s radical procedure may not be applicable to many other people with HIV, because of the difficulty in doing stem cell transplants, and finding the right donor.
“You don’t want to go out and get a bone marrow transplant because transplants themselves carry a real risk of mortality,” Volberding said.
He explained that scientists also still have many unanswered questions involving the success of Brown’s treatment.
“One element of his treatment, and we don’t know which, allowed apparently the virus to be purged from his body,” he observed. “So it’s going to be an interesting, I think productive area to study.”
Volberding continued, “Knock on wood, (Brown) hasn’t had any recurrence now for several years of the virus, and that hasn’t happened before in our experience.”
As a result, at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation some are now using the word “cure” after so many avoided it for decades.
“You sort of felt like you couldn’t say ‘cure’ for a number of years. Scientists and clinicians and people with HIV alike felt that was a promise that was never going to be realized and it was dangerous to direct a lot of energy toward it,” said Dr. Judy Auerbach. “And now things have shifted.”
The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine is currently funding stem cell research in the Bay Area based on Brown’s case in the hopes of replicating his success for broader populations of people with HIV.
The institute said it plans to begin clinical trials next year.
2011 by CBS San Francisco


http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/05/16/apparent-immunity-gene-cures-bay-area-man-of-aids/



Medical History made with first cure for HIV infected human

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/03/us-doctors-cure-child-born-hiv




FDA review favors first drug for HIV prevention


A pill that has long been used to treat HIV has moved one step closer to becoming the first drug approved to prevent healthy people from becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Gilead Sciences' Truvada appears to be safe and effective for HIV prevention. It concluded that taking the pill daily could spare patients "infection with a serious and life-threatening illness that requires lifelong treatment."
On Thursday a panel of FDA advisers will consider the review when it votes on whether Truvada should be approved as a preventative treatment for people who are at high risk of contracting HIV through sexual intercourse. The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, but it usually does.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47345265/ns/health-aids/ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47345265/ns/health-aids/)




http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=55700 (http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=55700)


http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=56366


I read about this cure a long time ago on this site.

there is also an aids vacine


http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=68833 (http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=68833)

http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=56366 (http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=56366)


im sure the are close...... just like the last few times some research group got close. I will believe when I see it.

[natina]

Bone marrow 'cures HIV patient'


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45185000/jpg/_45185394_57190138-5493-4d82-aaeb-06929109a42b.jpgAbout one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have a resistance to HIV

Doctors in Germany say a patient appears to have been cured of HIV by a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a genetic resistance to the virus.



The researchers in Berlin said the man, who suffered from leukaemia and HIV, had shown no sign of either disease since the transplant two years ago.
But they stressed it was an unusual case which needed further investigation.
Experts said the result may boost interest in gene therapy for HIV.
Berlin's Charite clinic said the 42-year-old patient was an American living in Berlin, but the man has not been identified.
Genetic mutation
He had been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, that causes Aids, for more than a decade and also had leukaemia.The clinic said since the transplant was carried out 20 months ago, tests on the patient's bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues have all been clear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7726118.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7726118.stm)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7726118.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7726118.stm)



Black Man May Hold The Cure for HIV



Scientists are saying they are one step closer to curing the HIV virus. And the secret lies in the body of a 60-year-old Black man. Pop it for details…
Say whaaat?! The creators of HIV Government scientists say they have found an antibody that kills 91% of HIV strains.



In the latest development, U.S. government scientists say they have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered. They are now deploying the technique used to find those antibodies to identify antibodies to influenza viruses.



The HIV antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. The trick for scientists now is to develop a vaccine or other methods to make anyone’s body produce them as well.



Donor 45′s antibodies didn’t protect him from contracting HIV. That is likely because the virus had already taken hold before his body produced the antibodies. He is still alive, and when his blood was drawn, he had been living with HIV for 20 years.



While he has produced the most powerful HIV antibody yet discovered, researchers say they don’t know of anything special about his genes that would make him unique.



Of course, they say it will take time to develop and will probably be expensive. Basically, you’re gonna need Magic Johnson money to get the vaccine.



http://bossip.com/265318/black-man-may-hold-the-cure-for-hiv/ (http://bossip.com/265318/black-man-may-hold-the-cure-for-hiv/)

[MdR Dave]

Originally Posted by LibertyHarkness
pharmaceutical companies will be pissing their pants if it works ...

Bingo. :Bowdown:

Right on. So much money in congress is tied to drug companies (in the top spots alongside petroleum and chemicals) that it could be hard to get the FDA moving.

Plus, now that corporations are people and we no longer pretend that government isn't for sale. . .

[natina]

HIV CURES

Bee Venom Kills HIV: Nanoparticles Carrying Toxin Shown To Destroy Human Immunodeficiency Virus (VIDEO)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/09/bee-venom-kills-hiv-cells_n_2843743.html


A breakthrough in AIDS research


A pair of naturally occurring antibodies are able to kill more than 90% of all strains of HIV, researchers say. The finding could lead to the development of new treatments and a possible vaccine.


http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/09/science/la-sci-hiv-antibodies-20100709



LA TIMES:THE KEY antibodies from the blood of a 60-year-old African American A breakthrough in AIDS research



A pair of naturally occurring antibodies are able to kill more than 90% of all strains of HIV, researchers say. The finding could lead to the development of new treatments and a possible vaccine.




July 09, 2010 (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/09)|By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
An effective vaccine against the AIDS virus may have moved one step closer to reality, researchers said Thursday.
Federal researchers have identified a pair of naturally occurring antibodies that are able to kill more than 90% of all strains of the AIDS virus, a finding they say could lead to the development of new treatments for HIV infections and to the production of the first successful vaccine against the virus.





HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is notoriously mutable, changing the composition of proteins on its surface with ease to escape pressure from the immune system. This enables it to continue infecting cells even after the appearance of antibodies targeting it — and to avoid the relatively ineffective vaccines developed so far.
Hundreds of variants of the virus are now in circulation around the world, and the identification of so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block the bulk of them has been the holy grail of HIV researchers.
To date, however, the best antibodies — immune system proteins that fight infections — that researchers have found block only 30% to 40% of all HIV strains. The identification of antibodies that can block more than 90% of strains could lead to what some researchers are dubbing a renaissance in AIDS prevention and treatment.
The key to the new antibodies is that they bind to a site on the virus surface that rarely mutates.
"I am more optimistic about an AIDS vaccine at this point in time than I have been probably in the last 10 years," Dr. Gary Nabel of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Reuters. He led the research reported Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science.
Nabel and his colleagues isolated the antibodies from the blood of a 60-year-old African American gay man. Using newly developed imaging and analytical techniques, they found that the two antibodies, called VRC01 and VRC02, bind to a spike on the surface of the virus. This spike interacts with a receptor called the CD4 binding site on the surface of human cells, and when an antibody binds to it, the virus cannot enter a cell.
Because the virus must use CD4 to enter cells, it cannot tolerate mutations in the spike. The composition of the spike is thus pretty much constant in all variants of HIV in circulation.





http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul...odies-20100709 (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/09/science/la-sci-hiv-antibodies-20100709)
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul...odies-20100709 (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/09/science/la-sci-hiv-antibodies-20100709)




http://frenchtribune.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/fullart/ccr5.jpg





HIV Cell Breakthrough





In a breakthrough, American scientists have succeeded in eradicating HIV from the body by genetically engineering immune cells (T-cells) for making them HIV-resistant.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Carl June, gene therapy expert from the University of Pennsylvania, presented the finding at an AIDS conference in Boston this week.
Researchers found by taking blood, removing a single gene called CCR5 from white blood cells or T-cells called CD4 cells most prone to infection by HIV, and then returning the blood to the body of nine HIV-positive patients, halted the spread of HIV, as the disabled T-cells were no longer able to manufacture the protein that attracts the HIV virus.
Following the alteration of the T-cells continuing to multiply in the body, allow it to build up resistance to HIV.



According to researchers, their pioneering treatment of creating HIV resistant T-cells in all nine patients, has shown promise in the first nine HIV infected people to receive it.
Lead scientist Carl June said this was the first example of genetic editing for introducing a disease resistant gene in patients.





http://frenchtribune.com/avis/113703-hiv-cell-breakthrough (http://frenchtribune.com/avis/113703-hiv-cell-breakthrough)
http://frenchtribune.com/avis/113703-hiv-cell (http://frenchtribune.com/avis/113703-hiv-cell)

http://frenchtribune.com/avis/113703-hiv-cell-breakthrough

HIV Cell Breakthrough

[Quiet Reflections]

that one off aids cure was great but I need to see some real results on a decent sized scale in order to trust a cure. For a vaccine I would need years and years of data before I would ever get injected with it, and add to that how quickly HIV mutates and they can count me out.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/26/179231916/failure-of-latest-hiv-vaccine-test-a-huge-disappointment

[MacShreach]

Big Pharma makes profits in the BILLIONS - their CEO's are some of the best paid CEO's in the world

Tell me again how they are struggling to make back R&D costs? I think I might have missed something.

<snip>

I did not say they were 'struggling', that was entirely your imagination, xx

[BiBoyinBeantown]

I don't mean to be a Black Cloud of Doom here but I've been reading about how an AIDS cure is just around the corner for about thirty years now and nothing that's been tried so far has worked out. I remain skeptical.

[MacShreach]

I don't mean to be a Black Cloud of Doom here but I've been reading about how an AIDS cure is just around the corner for about thirty years now and nothing that's been tried so far has worked out. I remain skeptical.

Yeah. I wouldn't be holding breath.