AIDS Cure...for one.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nifty article from the forefront of research for the cure. Alas, because it is reprinted from ABC news on Yahoo!, don't read the commentary.

Man Cured of AIDS: 'I Feel Good' - Yahoo! News

 

[Umbran]

This one showed up in Scientific American a couple months back as well.

Because the Yahoo article is not too detailed - the man in question has AIDS. He needed a bone marrow transplant for other reasons, and got a transplant of marrow that produces blood cells that are resistant to HIV. His body no longer produced cells that HIV could inhabit, and his AIDS simply vanished. Not only is he asymptomatic, but his virus load is no longer detectable.

The Scientific American article spoke of how this case spurned other research, but not what the Yahoo article is talking about. The SciAm article discussed genetic therapy - basically forcibly giving the AIDS patient new genes in his or her bone marrow, such that they then produce resistant blood cells.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah, they focused more on the possibility of umbilical blood doors than the procedure that actually saved this guy.

 

[Lwaxy]

Was about to say, bit of old news.

He kinda won the lottery because it is already hard to find donors, and most people probably wouldn't agree with donor material from HIV-resistant genotypes.

 

[Thunderfoot]

The sad part is, bone marrow transplants are relatively easy (if not somewhat, okay a whole lot, painful.) If that is all it takes, then the fuss of how incurable/untreatable this disease is kind of falls flat.

I had a friend in grade school/high school who had one about every other year for a degenerative bone disease. She was always in pain afterward, but the procedure was only a three day ordeal (check in/prep, operation, recovery) almost, but not quite outpatient, and a whole lot faster than say tonsil or appendix removal.

 

[Lwaxy]

It is always hard to find a match.

Asides, it is the fact that the donor would need to be immune to AIDs, which is a very rare occurrence.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yep- the immunity, they cited as being less than 1% of the population.* Then factoring in blood typing, etc., and you have long odds indeed.

Which is why they're looking at umbilical cells.








* I wonder if there's a test for that?

 

[Lwaxy]

Yes, there is a test for it that costs about $200.

 

[Herschel]

Still really great news, even if very limited.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Because if they got it to happen once, it can be replicated....eventually.