Breakthrough in HIV treatment

[DesertFox]

IN a breakthrough that could potentially lead to a cure for HIV infection, scientists have discovered a way to remove the virus from infected cells, a study released today said.

The scientists engineered an enzyme which attacks the DNA of the HIV virus and cuts it out of the infected cell, according to the study published in Science magazine.

The enzyme is still far from being ready to use as a treatment, the authors warned, but it offers a glimmer of hope for the more than 40 million people infected worldwide.

“A customised enzyme that effectively excises integrated HIV-1 from infected cells in vitro might one day help to eradicate (the) virus from AIDS patients,” Alan Engelman, of Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, wrote in an article accompanying the study.


Move (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21987906-23109,00.html)

[DesertFox]

Guys, so I can judge your scientific credibility, tell me if you subscribe to global warming.

[Timberwolf]

No, I don't...at least not the anthropogenic variety...

I've got a 'cure'...stop buggerin' each other. While the Tx mentioned in the OP is of interest, I keep hearing the words "unintended consequences" in my mind.

[DoctorDoom]

Guys, so I can judge your scientific credibility, tell me if you subscribe to global warming.I did, but they jacked up the price so damned much (for paying AlBore's power bill) that I let the subscription lapse.

[PrezLeefun]

Well I hope this is true. That would just be wonderful news. Think of all the kids who could potentially benefit from this.

[noncom]

I've got a 'cure'...stop buggerin' each other. While the Tx mentioned in the OP is of interest, I keep hearing the words "unintended consequences" in my mind.
Unintended?

Modern miracle drugs are responsible for right around .001% of all the lives saved by science in the past 200 years. The other 99.99% were saved by a little thing called HYGIENE. And there is a reason that option is not pursued for this particular venereal disease.

We never "cured" bubonic plague - we just quit living with rats. Drugs didn't medically eradicate malaria or typhoid fever - we just drained the swamps and quit drinking untreated sewage.

We have never prospectively "cured" ANY virus - let alone a retrovirus. All we've ever done is create vaccines to shield people from the consequences of future exposures. And we are no more likely to find a cure for the people who already have AIDS as we are to find a way to fly faster than light. Of course it's possible - but it will require an utterly new kind of science. And (this ten-thousandth article promising a "breakthrough" notwithstanding) there has never been a rational reason to suspect that throwing an infinite amount of money at the problem will accomplish that particular miracle.

The nearly trillion dollars that has gone into pharmacological AIDS research so far could have eliminated malaria from Africa and bought a lifetime supply of brand new I.V. needles for every man, woman and child on earth for the next ten generations.

Instead, it has been "heroically" invested into this Quixotic quest to make the world safe for a lifestyle involving illegal drug use and pathologically promiscuous anal sex fetishism.

And trust me; there is absolutely NOTHING unintended about any of that.

[Timberwolf]

I did, but they jacked up the price so damned much (for paying AlBore's power bill) that I let the subscription lapse.
http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/images/icons/biglaugh.gif http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/images/icons/biglaugh.gif

Damn...wish I had come up with that one!! :thumb: :thumb: