Possible Cure for HIV Discovered

[Star_Fox]

i'm a little skeptical about the mutation thing. if it backfires... we could be in a little serious trouble. :P

 

 

 

but good luck to them.

[Flyingjj]

You cant get AIDS if your not a dumb-[wagon].

 

May I mention the four letter word that begins with r and ends with the name of one of our simian friends?

 

Rape? If your smart it wont happen to you.

 

I reject your reality, and replace it with my own.

 

But seriously, intelligence is not protection against rape. Rape can happen under any circumstances, to anybody. Rape can and does happen in marriages, at parties, often when you least expect it to happen. You act like it would be the victim's fault for being raped because they weren't smart enough to avoid it. That's just stupid.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, actually on topic, my immediate thoughts were that causing mutations is a bad thing because if it so happens even one of those random mutations happened in the right combinations, then yes, we could have a super virus on our hands. We also have to remember that even though the probability of such a combination of mutations occuring is extraordinarily low, millions, perhaps billions, of these mutations would be taking place in every patient the "antidote" would be applied to.

[pureprayer]

You cant get AIDS if your not a dumb-[wagon].

 

May I mention the four letter word that begins with r and ends with the name of one of our simian friends?

 

Rape? If your smart it wont happen to you.

 

I reject your reality, and replace it with my own.

 

But seriously, intelligence is not protection against rape. Rape can happen under any circumstances, to anybody. Rape can and does happen in marriages, at parties, often when you least expect it to happen. You act like it would be the victim's fault for being raped because they weren't smart enough to avoid it. That's just stupid.

 

There is always something the victim could of done to prevent it.

[Orpheus]

You cant get AIDS if your not a dumb-[wagon].

 

May I mention the four letter word that begins with r and ends with the name of one of our simian friends?

 

Rape? If your smart it wont happen to you.

 

I reject your reality, and replace it with my own.

 

But seriously, intelligence is not protection against rape. Rape can happen under any circumstances, to anybody. Rape can and does happen in marriages, at parties, often when you least expect it to happen. You act like it would be the victim's fault for being raped because they weren't smart enough to avoid it. That's just stupid.

 

There is always something the victim could of done to prevent it.

 

Let me put a scenario out there. Rape happens out of the blue, some predator just attacks in say, the parking lot of a mall(actually happened here once, not too long ago). Do you expect them to do anything then? Do you expect them to be able to protect themselves if it was a suprise?

[pureprayer]

Honestly there are ways to prevent this. If you shop when it is active there would be too many people too get abducted. If you are smart you wont shop late at night with no one near you.

[Flyingjj]

Honestly there are ways to prevent this. If you shop when it is active there would be too many people too get abducted. If you are smart you wont shop late at night with no one near you.

 

In the parking lot then, as you are loading your grocieries, someone climbs out from under your car, puts a gun to your head and instructs you to drive to a pre arranged location, or more brutally, simply strips you down in the back of the vehicle. If the shop is active, then there are way too many vehicles around for anyone to notice. Besides, most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows, and often trusts.

 

 

 

This is not the place to debate about rape, but you sir need to be educated.

[fastortoise]

Honestly there are ways to prevent this. If you shop when it is active there would be too many people too get abducted. If you are smart you wont shop late at night with no one near you.

 

What I don't understand is why that Indian guy got banned and not you.

 

Your trolling is extremely obvious, and always steers every thread off topic.

 

 

 

Back on-topic: Have any of you heard of Africa? I know it's a longshot for most of you, it's that comma-shaped continent in the middle of your atlas. It makes me sick reading people's posts about how AIDS has "brought balance and control to the human population" and "without HIV everyone would be cramped", when millions of Africans are dying from the disease (AIDS being the biggest cause of death in Africa). If the same rates of death were to be in YOUR country, affecting YOUR race, i'm sure your posts would not have been the same. :shame:

[pureprayer]

Honestly there are ways to prevent this. If you shop when it is active there would be too many people too get abducted. If you are smart you wont shop late at night with no one near you.

 

In the parking lot then, as you are loading your grocieries, someone climbs out from under your car, puts a gun to your head and instructs you to drive to a pre arranged location, or more brutally, simply strips you down in the back of the vehicle. If the shop is active, then there are way too many vehicles around for anyone to notice. Besides, most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows, and often trusts.

 

 

 

This is not the place to debate about rape, but you sir need to be educated.

 

You can not stop people who have no relation to you from abducting you and taking you away but you can help prevent it.

 

 

 

When most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows is the victims fault because you can tell when not to follow someone into a dark alley i hope :? . Have to agree with you lets end this debate.

[magekillr]

Two decades after the approval of the first antiretroviral drugs, combination HAART has dramatically lowered the risk of illness and death for people with HIV. The year 2007 was another milestone, witnessing the approval of the first agents in two new anti-HIV drug classes--CCR5 antagonists and integrase inhibitors--that provide new options for treatment-experienced patients. Today, however, the anti-HIV drug pipeline is relatively sparse, with no blockbusters in the foreseeable future. While the first HIV maturation inhibitor, bevirimat, continues to slowly make its way through clinical trials, another once-promising agent that works by a completely novel mechanism, Koronis Pharmaceuticals' KP-1461, was recently put on hold after laboratory tests indicated that it did not demonstrate the expected antiviral activity.

 

 

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1881 ... d_RVDocSum

 

 

 

Sounds like media sensationalism as usual, I'll wait for the research itself.

[Flyingjj]

 

You can not stop people who have no relation to you from abducting you and taking you away but you can help prevent it.

 

 

 

When most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows is the victims fault because you can tell when not to follow someone into a dark alley i hope :? . Have to agree with you lets end this debate.

 

 

 

Of course you can help to prevent it, but that does not mean it won't ever happen.

 

 

 

And there is a difference between following someone into a dark alley, and say, someone slipping a date rape drug into your drink at a party.

 

 

 

Rape is NEVER the victim's fault. That's like the number one rule of sexual assualt awareness. I would have stopped the debate, but this is too important for it to go unsaid. Think of it as my closing argument.

[flying_death_bombs55]

I'm still going with that guy who said this will turn out like "I am legend" :roll:

[Tim]

Good for Victims, Bad for moronic teenswho go around in group orgy's or something. :|

[Bauke]

A clinical trial.. based on thirteen people and only some of them saw a drop in viral load. Not quite *the* cure. It might just be another way to slow the virus down, like most anti-HIV drugs that are on the market now, but I highly doubt it will cure for HIV.

 

 

 

And no, creating a more deadly virus with a mutagen is not very likely. Quite impossible actually. Like the researchers stated, HIV already mutates very fast. Getting the HIV to mutate even faster will only resort in damage. Remember, mutations are almost always a bad thing. If you have just a few mutations, a virus could survive, even if some of its genetic information is changed. If you mutate more, a cell, virus or bacteria simply dies.

 

 

 

In short: mutation rate does not correlate with evolution rate.

 

 

 

Also, it's unlikely you'd damage your own cells that much. Our cells divide at a much, much slower rate than a virus. Also, mutations are a lot less common. Just as with cancer, the most genetic instable particle (in this case the HIV) will die out first.

[jemathonical]

Honestly there are ways to prevent this. If you shop when it is active there would be too many people too get abducted. If you are smart you wont shop late at night with no one near you.

 

 

 

What about Africa? You know not everyone lives in developed countries. Most cases of AIDS are in 3rd world countries.

[i_love_burritos]

-.-

 

 

 

Sorry to be crass but if anyone knew anything about mutations in retroviruses it would be that, they do not deviate from their original function. Retroviruses are characteristic of single celled bacterium which share genetic information.

 

Its as likley as a wind-storm passing through a junkyard and a car being self assembled ( A Short History of Everything reference, Bill Bryson. Very good book).

 

 

 

Highly, highly unlikley.

 

 

 

Plus RNA transcription in retroviruses is "simple" compared to other organisms, with little to go wrong.

 

But reverse-scription into DNA is very complex.

[Laura]

Honestly there are ways to prevent this. If you shop when it is active there would be too many people too get abducted. If you are smart you wont shop late at night with no one near you.

 

In the parking lot then, as you are loading your grocieries, someone climbs out from under your car, puts a gun to your head and instructs you to drive to a pre arranged location, or more brutally, simply strips you down in the back of the vehicle. If the shop is active, then there are way too many vehicles around for anyone to notice. Besides, most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows, and often trusts.

 

 

 

This is not the place to debate about rape, but you sir need to be educated.

 

You can not stop people who have no relation to you from abducting you and taking you away but you can help prevent it.

 

 

 

When most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows is the victims fault because you can tell when not to follow someone into a dark alley i hope :? . Have to agree with you lets end this debate.

Of course! There's always ways to prevent it. If you think you would get raped in the parking lot at the mall, just stay home. Oh, wait...

 

 

 

There are ways to prevent everything. You're not going to get into a car crash if you never get your license. The point is, you usually won't function in society if you decide to try and prevent every unforeseeable event from happening.

[Rainy_Day]

Would be good if it could cure the virus, however surely it could easily backfire and make the virus a lot stronger, and therefore a lot harder to kill/control. :?

[Bauke]

Would be good if it could cure the virus, however surely it could easily backfire and make the virus a lot stronger, and therefore a lot harder to kill/control. :?

 

Not really.

[GameSock]

A clinical trial.. based on thirteen people and only some of them saw a drop in viral load. Not quite *the* cure. It might just be another way to slow the virus down, like most anti-HIV drugs that are on the market now, but I highly doubt it will cure for HIV.

 

 

 

And no, creating a more deadly virus with a mutagen is not very likely. Quite impossible actually. Like the researchers stated, HIV already mutates very fast. Getting the HIV to mutate even faster will only resort in damage. Remember, mutations are almost always a bad thing. If you have just a few mutations, a virus could survive, even if some of its genetic information is changed. If you mutate more, a cell, virus or bacteria simply dies.

 

 

 

In short: mutation rate does not correlate with evolution rate.

 

 

 

Also, it's unlikely you'd damage your own cells that much. Our cells divide at a much, much slower rate than a virus. Also, mutations are a lot less common. Just as with cancer, the most genetic instable particle (in this case the HIV) will die out first.

 

 

 

Thank you

[EdgedThesis]

Super-virus?

 

No. At least, not for enough time to actually be effective.

 

 

 

The trick is to make it mutate faster. There are already a number of errors that happen when a strand of RNA mutates, and we are trying to increase the rate of error.

 

It'd be like a cyclone of nucleotides whirling around with even more speed. Chaotic. Prone to mistakes. With enough errors, suddenly the virus becomes dysfunctional, and 'dies'.

[magekillr]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... 58f5611022

 

 

 

In the original paper, they show that there's no real reason to believe that it's more mutagenic than drugs that are already on the market for treating HIV, and may well in fact be less.

 

 

 

So anyone worried about some weird mutation ala "I am Legend", it seems about as likely as a giant black hole to suck us in from the Large Hadron Collider.

[transcript80]

A clinical trial.. based on thirteen people and only some of them saw a drop in viral load. Not quite *the* cure. It might just be another way to slow the virus down, like most anti-HIV drugs that are on the market now, but I highly doubt it will cure for HIV.

 

 

 

And no, creating a more deadly virus with a mutagen is not very likely. Quite impossible actually. Like the researchers stated, HIV already mutates very fast. Getting the HIV to mutate even faster will only resort in damage. Remember, mutations are almost always a bad thing. If you have just a few mutations, a virus could survive, even if some of its genetic information is changed. If you mutate more, a cell, virus or bacteria simply dies.

 

 

 

In short: mutation rate does not correlate with evolution rate.

 

 

 

Also, it's unlikely you'd damage your own cells that much. Our cells divide at a much, much slower rate than a virus. Also, mutations are a lot less common. Just as with cancer, the most genetic instable particle (in this case the HIV) will die out first.

 

 

 

At last.... Sense! From a fellow Dutchman, I might add :thumbsup:

 

 

 

To all of the people saying AIDS is a population control: You would talk differently if it were to happen to you, your loved ones or anybody else in your "inner circle". You talk disgustingly. AIDS will wipe out an ENTIRE generation in Africa, and you say:"meh, population control is necessary" ? Education is the key here! AIDS is a miserable disease.

 

 

 

Zombie scenarios? Super -virus? To all self-acclaimed "virologists" here : this is unlikely, if not impossible. Same odds as the afore mentioned large hadron collider. Please don't sound like an a** and make sure you'll get your facts right. You obviously have no idea what you are talking about, and rely on gut feelings, movie "facts" and other urban legends to form your opinion.

 

 

 

On topic. As stated, this is just a small trial with promising results. I mean, 13 patients? That's hardly statistical evidence. This need to be studied on larger scale, and the success rate ("some of the patients had no virus left") needs to be dramatically increased. Also, one of the suspected long term side effects of exposure to mutagens could be cancer, or something else. Of course, this need to be investigated further.

[EdgedThesis]

Sometimes, to speak objectively is to sound disgusting.

 

Of course we would feel for our friends and family if the disease ever took them--we would spend days mourning their loss and cursing humanity for not finding a cure.

 

But that's the thing. We would only feel, not think.

 

 

 

I agree, I'd be full of blind rage and grief if this virus took someone in my 'inner circle', but that's just how my heart would work.

 

 

 

It still doesn't detract from the argument that disease provides a much needed population control-- a population 'stabilizer'. We already talk about disease wiping through other ecosystems, and being beneficial, but all of a sudden our emotions kick in when we talk about the ecosystems of farms, villages, cities, and the uncontrolled spread of humanity to every corner of the Earth.

 

 

 

 

 

Science sometimes contrasts with our principles: Racism/Sexism? Bad. An intuitive human response during this day an age. But these hated concepts could be justified by Biology.

[Will H]

That's a clever solution, and the same principle could be applied to other serious pathogens, too. I'd like to see more developments in this direction. It's not the drug that's important, it's the concept.

 

 

 

The probability of the virus benefiting from the mutations is tiny to the point of negligence, and you have to remember, it will still be mutating until it dies!

 

 

 

By the way, I don't think it's right to allow diseases like this to spread because it's a 'population control'. It's the duty of society to allow ourselves to live longer and better. Population, for now, is not an issue. By the time it will be, we would have probably colonised the moon or something.

[EdgedThesis]

That's a clever solution, and the same principle could be applied to other serious pathogens, too. I'd like to see more developments in this direction. It's not the drug that's important, it's the concept.

 

 

 

The probability of the virus benefiting from the mutations is tiny to the point of negligence, and you have to remember, it will still be mutating until it dies!

 

 

 

By the way, I don't think it's right to allow diseases like this to spread because it's a 'population control'. It's the duty of society to allow ourselves to live longer and better. Population, for now, is not an issue. By the time it will be, we would have probably colonised the moon or something.

 

 

 

That's the hope.

 

No need for the conclusions of science to clash with our principles-- we should always be able to find another way, I guess.