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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
 Posted - 11/13/2008 : 18:29:38
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A friend showed me this: marrow transplant may have 'cured' AIDS.
Should be interesting to see what they'll do of it, if it's true and the man really no longer has AIDS... on my birthday too. Figures. 
[Edited to fix link - Dave W.]
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"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2008 : 18:52:14 [Permalink]
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| Congratulations! To you both... |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
 Posted - 11/13/2008 : 20:07:05 [Permalink]
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Here's Siberia's link reformatted.
ERV wrote this up as well. While it is amazing, she cautions that this probably won't be a cure for AIDS anytime soon:| Of course,"caveats are legion" (lol)-- 30% of patients die from the chemo/transplant. This treatment is even more expensive and intensive than anti-retrovirals-- It would be impossible to implement in the areas that need an AIDS cure the worst (Africa). But the success of this patient is giving hope to people like David Baltimore, who is currently trying to cure AIDS by genetically engineering individuals own white blood cells to not express CCR5, or to express the right antibodies... but even if Baltimores therapies are less invasive than a complete bone marrow transplant, it still takes some balls to think personalized genetic engineering is a viable HIV treatment in Africa... |
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2008 : 21:44:00 [Permalink]
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Stem cells would come in handy to provide the material to be transplanted while at the same time easing the transplantation procedure.
It would be slow and complicated and costly; but it seems like it would work to actually cure the disease (rather than keeping the virus in check like antivirals do). |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2008 : 23:14:53 [Permalink]
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Claims of a "cure" are automatically dubious, at best. This is an interesting avenue, but calling it a cure can only be characterized as wildly irresponsible.
This type of bone marrow transplant is (as the article fails to say) only undertaken when the alternative is a high chance of death. With a 20-30% mortality it isn't undertaken lightly. If a person only had HIV, and didn't have the leukemia of the patient from the article, there is no reason to do it. Antiviral cocktails can supress the virus for a long time now, decades. If a person were near death from the virus, then they would probably not be considered for this procedure either, the mortality rate would likely be significantly higher that the 20-30% for end-stage leukemia patients who get it.
It does, however, point the way to future research. Which makes it interesting.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2008 : 11:04:45 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
Claims of a "cure" are automatically dubious, at best. This is an interesting avenue, but calling it a cure can only be characterized as wildly irresponsible.
This type of bone marrow transplant is (as the article fails to say) only undertaken when the alternative is a high chance of death. With a 20-30% mortality it isn't undertaken lightly. If a person only had HIV, and didn't have the leukemia of the patient from the article, there is no reason to do it. Antiviral cocktails can supress the virus for a long time now, decades. If a person were near death from the virus, then they would probably not be considered for this procedure either, the mortality rate would likely be significantly higher that the 20-30% for end-stage leukemia patients who get it.
It does, however, point the way to future research. Which makes it interesting.
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Precisely; I'd guess it's more relevant for the research factor than the actual curing factor. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2008 : 12:15:16 [Permalink]
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This treatment is not going to be employed for cure; I don't think.
But if (when) the techniques used progress; a cure could be developed on similar premises.
*Basically; a drop or two from the patient's bone marrow could be removed (the technology already works)
*These cells could be modified so that to be able to perform their function while, at the same time, not present the surface receptors needed by the virus (we have the technology for the modification, we just need to learn what genes to target; some people are looking into that and this step should not present major difficulties).
*These modified cells would be cultured (we need more research done on stem-cells to do that effectively, that's one of the major hurdle)
*The patients' native bone marrow would be wiped out and replaced by the modified one (Here is the most difficult part, we can already do it, but there is a lot of risks associated with the procedure. We'd need to improve our mastery of these steps to be able to do it with only minimum risk for the patient. Using the patients own cells will help, but still, progress need to be done on this field).
The end result would be to have a patient with a fully functional immune system but whose cells would be immune to the virus.
This procedure will probably work in the near future. It will be complex, risky and costly (although all these will probably go down as the procedure become more wide-spread. Furthermore, anti-viral therapy are already extremely expansive on the long term,and I suspect many people would think a 30% risks acceptable in exchange of an actual cure rather than living with the virus all their life and talking a life-long treatment).
There might also be risks of further mutation by the virus to target a new receptor on the cells' surface... |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2008 : 21:25:00 [Permalink]
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The problem with bone marrow irradiation is the risk of death. Why take that risk when anti-virals can keep you healthy for decades?
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2008 : 22:20:22 [Permalink]
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Because, even if you the viral loads are kept in check, you are still infected and you live with the virus all your life.
You have to take drugs every day of your life; you have to meet with your MD regularly to check your virus level and renew your prescription; and chances are, no matter how long you get into a relationship for; you will never have unprotected sex with your partner and you might never 'make' a children.
All these. And knowing all this, would drive me crazy...
And that is; if everything go right and there is no problems developing with the long term use of antiviral drugs... |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Possible AIDS cure one step closer?
