Man Cured of HIV??

[Sparda29]

http://gizmodo.com/5713498/man-officially-cured-of-hiv

Article text removed by moderator staff due to potential copyright issues.

If this is true, Big Pharma will not be happy.

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[pharm B]

Hey Sparda, I don't like jumping into anyone's posts, but we've recently had reason to pursue a policy regarding the limiting of posting of full articles in posts. A sticky will likely be posted here shortly explaining the change. For now, it's pretty much just: post the link and not the text.

 

[pharm B]

Some friends and I were discussing this very article over the last few days. It should be interesting to see what this looks like when a real journal article is published with analysis.

They say he's cured and that it's not present, but what killed the free virus particles that weren't in the T-Cells that were killed with the chemo? Someone mentioned that the virus can still basically "sit" on a CCR4 receptor, without doing anything, since the CCR5 mutation stops it from entering the new T-Cells. Does this make the cured person a carrier?

 

[rph3664]

During the bone marrow transplant "craze" of the late 80s and early 90s, there was some talk about using these to cure AIDS.

This seems like a really drastic method, IMHO.

 

[DYSF777]

http://gizmodo.com/5713498/man-officially-cured-of-hiv

If this is true, Big Pharma will not be happy.

Very weak. Next article claims, "Patient died of HIV: new cure?!?"

 

[pharm B]

Why is it weak if the guy is HIV-free and alive?

 

[DYSF777]

Extremely happy for the patient but it does nothing for the advancement of HIV research. I mean seriously, what did you expect to happen to the virus if you completely destroy the very location where it resides? This would be an extremely impractical option for someone living with the disease with hopes of a cure.

To me it is akin to someone stating that they cured brain cancer by removing a patient's brain. Amazing discovery!

 

[joetrisman]

Why is it weak if the guy is HIV-free and alive?

Survival rates for bone marrow transplants for patients with SCID is something like 60%. While its not apples to apples it is better than looking at the prognosis for patients with leukemias and bone marrow transplants. With this in mind, its not exactly a cure considering about half your patients would die.

BTW, this info about curing the dude has been out for a while...

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

I liked this article. I think perhaps the next level to go to would be to try and mutate the CCR5 receptor in perhaps infected monkeys and see what happens. If the effects are duplicated then you could potentially "cure" the virus. If we can effectively do gene therapy in this manner we might have a cure.

Correct me if I am wrong but my understanding was the reason that HIV overwhelms the immune system is because it is destroying the T-cells and the number of mutations it accumulates doesn't allow for the antibody response to be effective. Plus if there are no T-cells it makes it that much harder to activate the B-cells. Now if you could make the T-cells resistant to being invaded by the virus this would allow for an effective immune response to wipe out the remaining viral particles by coating them with antibodies. Would this not work?

In case you are wondering why I am posting in this article, I was looking for a good way to remember HIV medications for boards and came across this lol.

 

[bacillus1]

If I remember correctly, doesn't the virus usually mutate to not use the CCR5 receptor? This is why maraviroc is only used in select patients.

 

[morbidoblivion]

If I remember correctly, doesn't the virus usually mutate to not use the CCR5 receptor? This is why maraviroc is only used in select patients.

Nope. Depends on the person. Some people have both CCR5 and CXCR4, while others have only the latter. For maraviroc to work, patients must be CCR5 receptor positive.

I haven't even read the article, but from what I remember, is this not the case where this patient absolutely needed a bone marrow transplant? With the mortality rates and risks associated with the whole procedure, it is absolutely not viable to use in patients.

P.S. Swedes have the highest numbers of people (5%) who lack the CCR5 and CXCR4.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

So are you saying we should all mate with Swedish people to have this gene spread further into our future generations?

 

[twiga]

It's too early to tell. Simple as that. The word "cured" here has been used incorrectly. You're right in that the journal article may shed some light on the length of his remission in this case. However, I suspect that it is no more than a few years.

Time will tell.

 

[morbidoblivion]

It's too early to tell. Simple as that. The word "cured" here has been used incorrectly. You're right in that the journal article may shed some light on the length of his remission in this case. However, I suspect that it is no more than a few years.

Time will tell.

So again, I havent read the study, but from what I have heard, they have done all kinds of biopsies and found no detectable levels anywhere.

In terms of Swedish people mating, pfsh no! BUT, when someone is in need of a procedure like this, it would be wise to look for the patients with those traits, which would likely be most commonly found in the Scandinavians.

 

[samuricool]

I did a presentation about stem cell research earlier in the semester and this was one of the stories I used. Here is a link of the updated procedure from January of this year if you are curious. This article is kinda weak but you should be able to find the original with a simple pubmed search. Pretty cool stuff, IMO.

 

[Requiem]

Is this new? I remember reading about this months ago in a German newspaper of all places...

 

[samuricool]

Is this new? I remember reading about this months ago in a German newspaper of all places...

Nope, not really. I think the original transplant took place in 2007 and the big follow up study that attracted the news outlets was late last year. Just noticed too that the the original thread was started in december and recently revived.