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And another one, just for good measure

Researchers have developed a new "assassin cell" therapy for
treating HIV which involves engineering the patient’s own immune system
to fight the virus more effectively.

The therapy – which has
proved effective in laboratory tests using human cell cultures – will
be tested in a clinical trial of 35 patients with advanced HIV
infection that is due to start next summer.

A little more on that cure

A Doctor, A mutation and a potential Cure – this link has a bit more of the science, including the following picture

A cure again? This time it sounds more promising (and sensible)

I got an email this morning from Amfar alerting me to a case study published in February that I had missed. An American living in Germany has apparently been cured of HIV with a stem-cell transplant from a donor with the delta32 CCR5 mutation. This is more of a proof-of-concept than an actual course of therapy for most of us though. Stem-cell transplants are even harder to get than antiretrovirals for most of the world’s HIV infected, and they aren’t going to be rolling them out in Kwazulu-Natal any time soon. But from the proof of concept, maybe these geniuses can come up with something for the rest of the world.

In an attempt to cure the leukemia, he underwent a course of radiation therapy and chemotherapy in preparation for a stem cell transplant. But in his case, rather than simply using the best match among available stem cell donors, his physicians did something very clever. They also screened potential donors for a natural mutation known as delta32 CCR5. CCR5 is the primary means by which most types of HIV infect cells. Individuals lacking this CCR5 receptor—the 1.5 percent of the Caucasian population in America and Europe with the delta32 mutation—are completely resistant to infection by the most common forms of HIV.

The patient’s stem cell transplant was a success, although relapse of his leukemia required a second transplant using the same donor. Now off all anti-HIV drugs for almost two years, the patient continues to show no detectable signs of HIV in his blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, intestines, or brain. To the limits of our ability to detect HIV, it appears that the virus has been eradicated from his body. At the very least this patient represents a functional cure: he is off all anti-HIV meds, has a normal T-cell count, and exhibits no evidence of virus.

amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research Research

MedlinePlus: Scientists Break Into HIV ‘Hideout’

They are slowly getting closer to a vaccine and each of these little discoveries brings us one day closer …

MedlinePlus: Scientists Break Into HIV ‘Hideout’

Some Lovely Music

The Sydney Symphony conducted by Sir Charles McKerras playing Richard Strauss’ Thus Sprach Zarathustra. And the second half of the program is Mozart’s C minor Mass.

PLoS Medicine – HIV Denial in the Internet Era

It may seem remarkable that, 23 years after the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), there is still denial that the virus is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). …

HIV denial has taken root in the general population and has shown its potential to frustrate public education efforts and adversely affect public funding for AIDS research and prevention programs.

PLoS Medicine – HIV Denial in the Internet Era

Part of the reason that these stupid opinions get any airplay is that people like Act-Up San Francisco and the Foo Fighters (!) actively promote the idea among gullible people. In Australia, a prominent court case in 2006 was forced to weigh the evidence when a man charged with the reckless endangerment of his sexual partners used AIDS denial as a key plank in his defense. The court came down on the side of mainstream science, and he was finally jailed last month after an appeal failed.

Man jailed for spreading HIV

Although I’m no fan of jailing people for diseases (were his sex partners jailed for taking part in unprotected sex as well? No.), I’m glad that the court, with no vested interest in the scientific status quo, found in favour of HIV as the cause of AIDS.

A Halloween message from My Viral Life

Stability of the latent reservoir for HIV-1 in patients receiving valproic acid.

Surprise, surprise. Valproic acid makes no difference to latent viral reservoirs, and moreover, seems to have some incredibly toxic side effects. So NOT a cure ….

Quote

Entrez PubMed

Modelling the Impact of Antiretroviral Use in Resource-Poor Settings

 

Quote

PLoS Medicine: Modelling the Impact of Antiretroviral Use in Resource-Poor Settings

 

There is no doubt that ARV is really important as a part of the control of the impact of HIV, but for too long now, we have been looking to treatments to somehow take the brunt of prevention. This study hopefully puts a nail in the coffin of the arguments that drugs can do what behaviour change can’t. As the authors say, "Our analysis found that ART cannot be seen as a direct transmission prevention measure, regardless of the degree of coverage. Counselling of patients to promote safe sexual practices is essential and must aim to effect long-term change."

Treatment IS NOT prevention.

But neither is counselling positive people to achieve bevaiour change enough either. Putting the onus onto positive people means that newly infected people, who have not yet been diagnosed, can carry on as if they are not infected. Given the infeciousness of the newly positive, this is a serious flaw in any prevention strategy.