Scientists Neutralize HIV At Last - Neatorama

Ever since I was in graduate school many, many years ago, science has "cured" HIV/AIDs in vitro and in animal models. This is good news if you're a lab animal, but not for patients suffering from the disease.

This is why this news is particularly good. Prof. Jens Lundgren of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues have successfully neutralized the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in patients by using combination therapy:

With the latest advances in treatment, doctors have discovered that they can successfully neutralise the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The so-called ‘combination therapy’ prevents HIV from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population.
To date, it represents the most significant treatment for patients suffering from HIV.

Link - Thanks becky :) !

This is great news.
No doubt about it, that the treatment is going to be long
and expensive, but it's a great step forward in dealing with HIV

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This is AMAZING news....if it's true, I've been searching for some information that is somewhat more concrete at CNN and such (you'd think this would make headlines) but other than neatorama I can't find it anywhere else.

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This is not news of a new therapeutic. The investigators mentioned in this article studied the immune system of HIV+ patients treated with combination drug therapy and showed that their immune systems were comparable to uninfected individuals. Combination drug therapy has been used since the early 1990s, but newer drugs that target different steps in the HIV life cycle are now being added to "the cocktail." Yes, you can get to undetectable viral load with combination therapy, but you must always stay on the anti-retrovirals that have HIDEOUS side effects. Drug resistant HIV is increasingly cropping up which may negate these effects in another decade. The only way to "cure" HIV is with an effective vaccine and that development remains elusive.

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I notice it says nothing about passing it to someone else, and from what I take, it's only neutralized as long as the patient continues said therapy. Why would they want to cure it anyway? It's a billion dollar a year industry, and to big wigs, that's all the public really is. A dollar sign.

Awful nerdy, but if you replace the energy production plot in the matrix with monetary production, it all hits home a lot harder...

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I'm reminded of a bit from Dennis Leary (back when he was funny)

"...can you imagine the day they cure AIDS? Boy, if you can't get laid that day! There's just no hope for you..."
:)

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My bad...that should have read Dennis Miller.

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It's not a cure, it merely suppresses the virus for as long as you take the meds. So it's pretty much useless for most of the people who are HIV positive, as they're too poor to pay for lifelong medication.

But I'm pretty sure that we WILL find a solution some day.
There're people who are immune against the HIV, we "just" have to find out WHY and use this knowledge.

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What I want to know, and what none of the articles I have read are saying is, how does this affect people who have already developed full blown aids?

p.s. let's not forget about Bill Hicks "the day they find the cure for aids there will be fucking in the streets"

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@Retrokatze

If you're talking about that group of prostitutes in Kenia, they've got HIV now too. Not immune, just lucky (for a while).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/619316.stm

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Well in regards to Retrokatze's post, I remember a documentary that was on one of those PBS channels. It was about a gay man in san francisco, and how he survived the AIDS epidemic while everyone around him died from the dreadful disease. He didn't take any special precautions in terms of safe sex, etc., yet he never got sick. They analyzed his DNA, and compared it to the DNA from the bones of those who were not afflicted by the bubonic plague during the black death of europe. Both DNA were a match, suggesting that this individual, who seems to be immune from the AIDS virus, got his ability from his ancestors all the way in europe.

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Ummm...that BBC article states that "It was thought that exposure to HIV on a regular basis created immunity". In the USA, this has never been the case. There are known "immune" cases. It is a partial immunity (they lack certain surface molecules needed for sexual or M-tropic type HIV to infect cells) in that they can still get T-tropic type infections (transmitted by blood). Those African prostitutes likely had this mutation, but were eventually exposed to the blood of infected people and not just semen.

Combination therapy is the standard of care in the US for HIV infections composed of 2 NRTI's and 1 PI. Yes, it works well, but all HIV+ patients eventually succumb to infection.

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@ bob: Ah, no, I was talking about those 3%(?) in northern Europe. But it's been a while since I heard about it.

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bob: Ah, no, I was talking about those 3%(?) in northern Europe. But it's been a while since I heard about it.

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Wow, headlines like this, and the poor reporting of the article it links to--dispel my confusion of why the myth that having sex with a virgin cures AIDS (and other, related myths) are so prevalent in some places.

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