DailyDirt: The Progress Of Treating HIV

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Mar 6th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The US Center for Disease Control reported on its first case of AIDS (though it wasn't called AIDS at the time) in 1981. Some HIV-positive patients have since gained access to anti-viral drugs that hold off the fatal complications for many more years than it was previously thought possible. There are over 34 million people in the world who are HIV-positive, and there are some optimistic reports that the treatments are becoming more effective. Here are just a few fascinating stories on the development of HIV treatments.

A baby born in Mississippi with HIV has been "functionally cured" after receiving an aggressive regimen of anti-retroviral drugs.. a discovery that occurred when the treatment was inadvertently stopped after 18 months. There have been some scattered reports of other babies who have been cleared of HIV, but this is the first case that will be rigorously studied with highly sensitive genetic tests. [url]
A generation of HIV-positive youngsters are beginning to live into adulthood, but the long-term effects of HIV (and the medicines to treat it) are completely unexplored territory. Studying these kids for many decades could determine optimal medical regimes and shape how society handles patients who need indefinite treatment. [url]
The "Berlin Patient" (aka Timothy Ray Brown) is the first known person to defeat HIV. After a bone marrow transplant to treat (unrelated) leukemia, Brown recovered, and doctors found that his HIV levels were at undetectable amounts.. and remained so without anti-viral drugs. [url]
Some people have a genetic mutation that prevents HIV from infecting their white blood cells, making them immune to the virus. The specific mutation was identified in 1996, but the discovery hasn't (yet) lead to a universal vaccine. [url]

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Filed Under: aids, berlin patient, cure, disease, health, hiv, immunity, medicine, treatment

13 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2013 @ 5:02pm

hmm
what is the difference between an anti-viral drug and an anti-retroviral drug?
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2013 @ 5:18pm

Re: hmm
A retrovirus is a type of virus. So an anti-retroviral attacks retroviruses spefically, while an anti-viral attacks viruses generally.
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Jay (profile), 6 Mar 2013 @ 5:46pm

??!
Wait, isn't there a ton of speculation that AIDS is similar to the bubonic plague?
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Anonymous, 6 Mar 2013 @ 6:22pm

There was a time when there was no AIDS. Then all of a sudden it just appeared. Where did it come from? That's one reason I think it's manmade.
Also, when it appeared on the scene it wasn't called HIV. It was called HTLV III.
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demonsun, 6 Mar 2013 @ 6:32pm

Re: ??!
Not if you understand Biology, bubonic plague is caused by Yersinia bacteria, not a virus.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2013 @ 6:35pm

There is only one problem and that is cures = far less money than a drug that allows you to live a functional life as long as you're taking it.

It's a fucked up way of thinking :( but it's how the big pharma companies think.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2013 @ 6:36pm

I weep for the world when the cure for cancer is found and the copyright maximalist are the first in the bandwagon.
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toyotabedzrock (profile), 6 Mar 2013 @ 7:22pm

Mutation
That mutation only makes them immune to one of the major strains of HIV!
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letherial (profile), 6 Mar 2013 @ 7:31pm

i Swore i watched a show where all you needed to do is inject liquified money into your veins, in fact im so positive im HIV positive.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2013 @ 7:40pm

Re:
I agree, progress in this arena is very slow for a bunch of sinister reasons. Not sure if this is the only reason, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were part of the reason. A lot of it probably involves a lot of bureaucracy and overzealous regulations and restrictions and red tape.

Here are some more links I just found on Google.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2129200/Could-cure-AIDS-horizon-Genetica lly-engineered-human-stem-cells-hunt-kill-HIV-inside-body.html

http://www.nature.com/news/gene-th erapy-can-protect-against-hiv-1.9516

I remember they started a study a longer time ago at the University of Pennsylvania where they took out people's antibodies, altered them to take out the genes that code for the antigen that the Aid's virus attaches to, and reinserted them. This was based on the fact that, for quite a long time now, it has been known that some people can't get HIV/AID's (or at least the majority of the variants) because they don't have the gene that codes for this antigen. The idea would be that these invulnerable antibodies would multiply once inserted into the body effectively restoring (or at least partially restoring) the person's immunity. I can no longer find anything about this and the last I read on a Google search is that the FDA shut down the universities' gene therapy research facility due to violations or something.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2013 @ 2:45am

Re: Mutation
that's still an improvement on nothing at all.
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vivie loxton, 9 Nov 2013 @ 2:09am

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