AIDS cured?

[No Limit]

Looks like the first person ever had been cured of AIDS:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/12/14/doctors-claim-hiv-positive-man-cured-stem-cell-transplant/

Timothy Ray Brown, an HIV-positive American living in Germany, had leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy, when he received a transplant of stem cells from a donor carrying a rare, inherited gene mutation that seems to make carriers virtually immune to HIV infection.

The transplant appeared to wipe out both diseases, giving hope to doctors, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been studying HIV/AIDS for almost 30 years, said while this is an interesting proof of concept, it’s absurdly impractical.

....

Quinn said he agrees with the researchers on this case that it would be qualified as the first HIV cure, opening the door to alternative means of curing HIV.

“He [Brown] has been without therapy for three years and appears to be free of the virus,” he said. “It gives hope to the millions of people infected with HIV that cure is a feasible option in the future.”

Although there is a catch:

“It’s hard enough to get a good compatible match for a transplant like this,” Fauci told FoxNews.com, “But you also have to find compatible donor that has this genetic defect, and this defect is only found in 1 percent of the Caucasian population and zero percent of the black population. This is very rare.”

Fauci said while this patient is “functionally cured” this is not something you can do with every HIV-infected individual.

...

It is a near fatal procedure that he had to have done because of the leukemia, but this procedure is very expensive and you have to be transplanted with a donor who is shown to be already resistant to HIV,” Quinn said. “You’re asking for a tall order to replicate this in the future.”

Fox news does try to play down the significance of this quite a bit. And they might be right. But this is still a pretty big ****ing deal I would think. Also, imagine what this guy must be feeling. Not only did he have leukemia but was also infected with AIDS. And it looks like he might turn out fine, crazy shit.

 

[15357]

Crazy shit indeed.

Btw, weren't there very rare cases of people with AIDS getting rid of the HIV virus but still remaining immunocompromised?

 

[Warped]

cool news, I think I've heard a story about a man that was cured, maybe its the same guy but time had to show if it came back or not

but....
AIDS vs Cancer

I'm still trying to figure out which one is worse to either have or is the most damaging.

 

[Tyguy]

I used to have a tiny rush of excitement when I read thread titles like this. I think I've become desensitized to unwarranted hype.

 

[Maestro]

Wow, science reporting that actually emphasizes how uncertain the science is.

From FOX NEWS no less!

Shit, Armageddon is on the horizon. Everyone stock up on beans, bullets, and band-aids.

 

[MJ12]

I used to have a tiny rush of excitement when I read thread titles like this. I think I've become desensitized to unwarranted hype.

Same.

When I read the thread title I literally said, "nope" out loud before even opening the thread, heh.

 

[Stigmata]

Wow, science reporting that actually emphasizes how uncertain the science is.

From FOX NEWS no less!

It doesn't surprise me that Fox News would attempt to discredit science somehow.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Heh, curing AIDs with stem cells? There's a controversy bomb if I ever heard of one.

Here's hoping it somehow becomes more practical in the near future.

I used to have a tiny rush of excitement when I read thread titles like this. I think I've become desensitized to unwarranted hype.

No offense to No Limit, as I mightn't have heard of this had he not posted it, but I really do despise titles which are just "something happened" with a question mark shoved cheekily onto the end. It's such a cheap ploy for attention, when a less misleading title mightn't raise people's hopes so much. Anyway, I'm referring more to journalism than this - I'm used to it here.

 

[Darkside55]

this defect is only found in 1 percent of the Caucasian population and ZERO PERCENT OF THE BLACK POPULATION.

 

[No Limit]

Yeah, I must say. It kicks ass to be white.

 

[Mr. Djees]

That doesn't seem right, wasn't this mutation first discovered in african prostitutes?

 

[Maestro]

[snip]

I lol'd.

Also, AIDS-resistant=/=AIDS-proof. I believe they found some prostitutes were AIDS-resistant Djees, but not AIDS-proof.

 

[Kaptain H]

I lol'd.

Also, AIDS-resistant=/=AIDS-proof. I believe they found some prostitutes were AIDS-resistant Djees, but not AIDS-proof.

Is the mutation the same gene that protected their European ancestors from various plagues?

 

[Mr. Djees]

Also, AIDS-resistant=/=AIDS-proof. I believe they found some prostitutes were AIDS-resistant Djees, but not AIDS-proof.

I guess, I just assumed there weren't that many different AIDS genes floating around.

 

[Eejit]

It doesn't surprise me that Fox News would attempt to discredit science somehow.

Except that isn't what they're doing..?

 

[Darkside55]

Don't burst the man's bubble. Fox news has to be demonized at every turn. It's the natural order.

 

[Maestro]

Is the mutation the same gene that protected their European ancestors from various plagues?

Got me, but there are varying levels of resistance to AIDS because of differences in genetics. The Mendelian model often is misused to oversimplify genetics, many different genes impact one thing. It's a redundant architecture, and therefore much less failure-prone than top-down pyramid schemes (like we have in computers, for example). They have isolated certain genes associated with AIDS resistance, if I recall correctly.

I guess, I just assumed there weren't that many different AIDS genes floating around.

You've got 23,000 genes. We don't know what all of them do.

 

[CyberPitz]

Am I the only one to bring up the "HIV =/= AIDS" in regards to the thread title?

Anyway, I found this story nifty. Good for him!

 

[Maestro]

Well, oops. I can't claim to have 100% semantic accuracy, but probably should have remembered that one.

 

[Kula Meenur]