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Cure for HIV found (for one guy at least)!
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| EgosXII |
sluts rejoice! :p
Dude had HIV, got serious leukemia, and during his intensive treatment for his leukemia, his HIV was cured... :wtf:
fairly interesting: Though it seems like this guy who was cured was a bit of a lucky or particular case, obviously brings a fair bit of hope for the future!
| quote: | Approximately 1 percent of Caucasians in northern and western Europe have a special mutation that virtually prevents them from being infected with the HIV virus. The mutation, dubbed CCR5 delta 32 homozygosity, causes individuals to lack the CCR5 receptor, which the HIV lentivirus uses to accomplish its infection process.
Physicians treating Mr. Brown's cancer purposefully selected a donor who happened to have this beneficial mutation.
Hopes of a cure seemed faint, though. After all, if the HIV infection in Mr. Brown's former CD4 (T-cell) population had advanced enough, it would have developed the ability to infect using the CXCR4 receptor, rendering the protective mutation useless. And even if the virus had not armed itself with this new ability, no one had ever been cured of the disease.
While Mr. Brown may have been unfortunate by and large medically, he apparently lucked out when it came to his HIV infection.
Taken abruptly off antiretroviral drugs after the transplant, he showed no signs of HIV infection. For the next 38 months he underwent immunosuppressive treatment to protect the graft as it repopulated his intestinal mucosa.
Tissue samples taken during this time period showed spiking levels of the donor T-cells and no trace of infection. Weaning off immunosuppressants, the man's T-cell levels dropped to that of a healthy adult male.
Medical researchers concluded that it was unlikely that the man still had HIV -- after all if he had the disease, it would have likely evolved the CXCR4 infection ability and infected his immunotransplant.
Further evidence the disease was gone was shown by dropping levels of his body's HIV antibodies. And viral load testing (RNA) and tests for viral DNA within cells -- two tests that typically reveal the presence of HIV -- came back negative
Mr. Brown's ordeal was chronicled in the German magazine Stern.
The results have also been published in an article in the peer-reviewed journal Blood and a study [PDF] in The New England Journal of Medicine.
As the magazine notes, past attempts to graft "immune" T-cells failed, due to the long lifespans of the victim's infected T-cells. Those long lifespans bought the virus enough time to mutate and overcome the graft's immunity. But in Mr. Brown's case, the chemotherapy killed enough of the infected cells that the mutation was not able to occur.
While the treatment regiment is extremely dangerous, chemotherapy -- long aimed at curing cancer -- may soon be used to cure HIV.
The key remaining obstacle is to develop ways to create CCR5 deficient T-cells.
Mr. Brown was fortunate in that a donor was found who happened to have this mutation. Most won't be that lucky. But researchers are hoping to create stem cells from the patient's various cell lines, differentiate them into T-cells, and finally using gene therapy to knock out the CCR5 receptor DNA.
The resulting treatment may not be correct for everybody. HIV is largely repressible with today's advanced drug regimens. Some may decline to risk their lives to be pronounced "cured".
For those who may someday opt for this route, the resulting treatment will likely be very expensive. Thus South Park's irreverent recent episode "Tonsil Trouble", which depicted NBA-great Magic Johnson being "cured" of HIV via a money transfusion may prove somewhat prophetic.
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| Saka |
There is hope.
Nice to have another feel good thread. |
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| EgosXII |
| i love when accidents happen for the good haha: Pretty great potential, if they can replicate it! :) |
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| dj_alfi |
| This is positive news. |
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| djhaziel |
| This thread should be renamed to FAO:Renzo |
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| ZeJayMan |
Cure for cancer, cure for AIDS
Make a nigga wanna stay on tour for days |
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| bigjimslade002 |
| high five! |
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| Pjotr G |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_alfi
This is positive news. |
HIV-positive! |
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| OkiDokie |
| That's one lucky bastard |
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| Jarvmeister |
Apparently, if you're treated early enough and change your lifestyle to a healthy one the outlook for HIV patients is now very good with the retro viral drugs available.
Doctors say that HIV patients can now expect to live out the rest of their lives with few or no complications.
Which is also good news I suppose........
I looked into this a few weeks ago when a conversation came up about Magic Johnson and his apparent recovery from HIV. Whilst he hasn't actually recovered, it's as good as.
And another statistic I stumbled across was that in 2009 in the UK, only about 130 cases of HIV were known to have been contracted through heterosexual intercourse. All other cases in the UK where heterosexual intercourse had resulted in contracting the virus were due to men sleeping with women abroad. Moral: don't have sex with someone's bum, or when you go on holiday......, and definitely not both at the same time. |
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| EgosXII |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jarvmeister
Apparently, if you're treated early enough and change your lifestyle to a healthy one the outlook for HIV patients is now very good with the retro viral drugs available.
Doctors say that HIV patients can now expect to live out the rest of their lives with few or no complications.
Which is also good news I suppose........
I looked into this a few weeks ago when a conversation came up about Magic Johnson and his apparent recovery from HIV. Whilst he hasn't actually recovered, it's as good as.
And another statistic I stumbled across was that in 2009 in the UK, only about 130 cases of HIV were known to have been contracted through heterosexual intercourse. All other cases in the UK where heterosexual intercourse had resulted in contracting the virus were due to men sleeping with women abroad. Moral: don't have sex with someone's bum, or when you go on holiday......, and definitely not both at the same time. |
yeah has been for a while, but its incredible that it's been cured- huge potential |
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