H I V Breakthrough [edited]

[Dean]

KOBE, Japan, July 6 (UPI) -- Japanese researchers have developed a durable new drug that blocks HIV from entering human cells and causes almost no side effects.

The new drug, code named AK602, was unveiled by Hiroaki Mitsuya, leader of the research team at Kumamoto University, at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe Tuesday, the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday.

The drug's main feature is that it shuts out the AIDS virus at the point when it tries to intrude into a human cell.

Current AIDS medications often lose their effectiveness after a few days due to the virus' resistance, but the AK602 reacts to human cells instead of attacking the virus, said Mitsuya, a university professor.

When the new drug becomes attached to the protein that acts as an entrance into human cells for the AIDS virus, it can prevent HIV from entering.

The researchers conducted clinical tests on 40 AIDS patients in the United States. When the patients took 0.02 ounces of AK602 twice a day for 10 days, the number of HIV viruses dropped to an average of 1 percent.

Almost no side effects were reported, the professor said.
http://news.google.com/news?q=Kumamoto%20University&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wn

[Bruce]

Yeah, but what if it's...

"Not HIV but FULL-BLOWN AIDS!"

With that aside, they'll have a cure for everything soon enough.

[Renegade]

It was only a matter of time.

[bozley05]

Sweet!

I agree, within 20 years major illnesses like Cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons etc. will all be cureable.

[Robert]

Shame the U.S. government has limit the type of research and funding needed to help find cures for those illnesses. I truely believe that stem cells may be able to those suffering from some fo the major dieases like MS.

[MATRIX]

Shame the U.S. government has limit the type of research and funding needed to help find cures for those illnesses. I truely believe that stem cells may be able to those suffering from some fo the major dieases like MS.

Yeah, but they are investing on the fuel cell of the future, that will somehow help reduce the global warming if it's implemented worldwide. Or at least that is what I believe.

[Yojance]

Yeah, but they are investing on the fuel cell of the future, that will somehow help reduce the global warming if it's implemented worldwide. Or at least that is what I believe.

Yeah, tell that to millions of children that die cause of AIDS. Im sure they will understand that US cares more about fuel and bombs than lil kids.

Im sure they will understand.

[jmiller]

Yeah, but they are investing on the fuel cell of the future, that will somehow help reduce the global warming if it's implemented worldwide. Or at least that is what I believe.
According to George Bush global warming is non-existant. :rolleyes:

[Meksilon]

Dean, there have been plenty of breakthroughs like this already with HIV. The problem is that HIV is a virus. Scientists have never been able to cure any virus, not even the common cold. The drug you're talking about doesn't cure HIV, it simply prevents its spread. There's been other drugs that do this in the past, the problem is that the HIV virus changes so much, and there are so many new and different forms of it today it's almost impossible to make a drug that will help every single one of them.

Also that's only half the battle, the other half would be to then kill all HIV-infected cells. This is still not a cure, HIV will never be truly curable. The best they'll ever be able to do is prevent it's spread and then kill your infected cells. And to Robert, no one has ever tried to stop stem-cell research, in fact the Catholic Church (I'm not Catholic) funded their own stem-cell research. The results of it showed that stem-cells from adults are just as useful as stem-cells from embryos. Human embryos are not a scientific resource, they're humans in the early stages of development. Their stem-cells certainly shouldn't be used scientifically.

[jmiller]

Meksilon,

He's just posting an article for others to see. Chances are he won't return to this thread. He's not here to argue.

Don't make this something it isn't.

[bozley05]

I'm with jmiller on this one, why must even a good news story turn into an argument? Any breakthrough is a good thing.

[jmiller]

Exactly, bozley05.
This is indeed good news, and the results are very promising:
"The researchers conducted clinical tests on 40 AIDS patients in the United States. When the patients took 0.02 ounces of AK602 twice a day for 10 days, the number of HIV viruses dropped to an average of 1 percent."

[Jan]

With all due respect, the thread title is misleading, because it isn't a *cure*, just a prevention to further spread.

[jmiller]

With all due respect, the thread title is misleading, because it isn't a *cure*, just a prevention to further spread.
I just realized that as well, and was about to mention it, but you beat me to it. :P

May not be a cure, but it still brings hope.

[jmiller]

And to Robert, no one has ever tried to stop stem-cell research, in fact the Catholic Church (I'm not Catholic) funded their own stem-cell research. The results of it showed that stem-cells from adults are just as useful as stem-cells from embryos. Human embryos are not a scientific resource, they're humans in the early stages of development. Their stem-cells certainly shouldn't be used scientifically.
Hate to feed the trolling, but I can't leave this alone.

Nobody has ever tried to stop stem-cell research you say? I beg to differ.

The head of (one of) the most powerful nations in fact codemns. Yes, he has the right to his own opinion. But that in fact proves that "someone" is trying to stop stem-cell research.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1116628056180_81?s_name=&no_ads=
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=778442

[pdrucker]

well if you give this to the new babies being born in africa, it will help the problem greatly. go science!

[tandoc]

In the words of my *awesome* maths teacher...

If you can't get laid the day they cure AIDS, just chop it off.

Seriously though, it's nice to see society moving technology forward, instead of just compacting it.

[Robert]

And to Robert, no one has ever tried to stop stem-cell research, in fact the Catholic Church (I'm not Catholic) funded their own stem-cell research. The results of it showed that stem-cells from adults are just as useful as stem-cells from embryos. Human embryos are not a scientific resource, they're humans in the early stages of development. Their stem-cells certainly shouldn't be used scientifically.

Nobody ever tried to stop stem-cell research? Only the most powerful country, the U.S. Government has limited the type of research and the funding for our scientists to do it. With that "limited research and funding" it would take years for scientists to find any answers. Once Bush is out of office, things will change.

I'd like to see an article on how the Catholic Church has funded their own stem cell research. They were very much against Bush's plan to even allow a small portion of funding. I have a very very difficult time believing the Catholic Church would even fund a quarter of any research for stem cells.

[Meksilon]

With all due respect, the thread title is misleading, because it isn't a *cure*, just a prevention to further spread.Thankyou, and that's what I was pointing out. Everyone had high expectations and is getting their hopes up. Of course 90% of people expect HIV to be curable, but it simply is not possible. Killing infected cells is not a cure, it's amputation.

Jmiller, there are plenty of us against embryonic stem-cell research. No one has tried to stop adult stem-cell research. Bush is only against the use of embyos in the research.
I'd like to see an article on how the Catholic Church has funded their own stem cell research. They were very much against Bush's plan to even allow a small portion of funding. I have a very very difficult time believing the Catholic Church would even fund a quarter of any research for stem cells.The Church did this, as I said, to show that stem-cells do not have to be taken from embryos to be useful scientifically. Their findings were unarguably a success. They were biased, because that's what they wanted to prove - but nevertheless that's what they found. There are plenty of scientists all over the world who are plenty happy with the stem cells they get from adults. There's only a few which have claimed that embryonic stem-cells are more useful. There are no limitations I've heard of in the US imposed on studying adult stem-cells, there are no such limitations in Australia. Link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7283645/

[notnamed]

Meksilon, thanks for the first paragraph + first two sentences of the second paragraph in your first post in this thread. It was informative and perfectly correct. Now if only the rest of your posts weren't trolling you might actually gain some respect around here.

[Gayowulf]

Yeah, but what if it's...

"Not HIV but FULL-BLOWN AIDS!"

With that aside, they'll have a cure for everything soon enough.

if you've got AIDS you're SOL... special HIV drug or not.

[Bruce]

if you've got AIDS you're SOL... special HIV drug or not.
I think you missed the reference.

[Gayowulf]

Nah, I've seen that episode. :) I just couldn't think of a proper way to acknowledge it. the next line would have been good, but I don't know it.

or even a "giggity" or 3 would have done i guess.

[Meksilon]

Meksilon, thanks for the first paragraph + first two sentences of the second paragraph in your first post in this thread. It was informative and perfectly correct. Now if only the rest of your posts weren't trolling you might actually gain some respect around here.Robert bought up stem-cells - yes it was off-topic, but I replied constructively. There's nothing troll-like about that.

By the way, the real HIV breakthrough which made this recent development possible was years ago when some African prostitutes were found to be immune to HIV, but were carriers of the virus. That is, they were immune to the virus, but everyone they had sex with would contract HIV from them because they permanently carried the virus. It was suggested that their blood cells contained certain rare qualities that made this possible, and that it would be possible to artificially create these qualities in others with a drug.

I personally don't have faith in it. Africa may well need it, but it's not like taking a needle for immunity. When this happens you are given a small dose of a "similar" virus, where your body is then able to create enough (natural) anti-bodies combating it to effectively combat the real threat. With this though it's completely different, it's not about building antibodies (natural or artificial) to combat the HIV virus, but rather it's about modifying your blood cells.

HIV needs living white blood cells in order to "live" - that is to replicate and spread. If it cannot enter your white blood cells you're immune. I feel though that there will be serious side-effects to artificially modifying your blood cells, especially when talking about building an immunity, rather than curing infections. It would be different if it cured infections, because then you might be able to justify the side-effects. By comparison, when you take a needle to create antibodies there are no side effects. Undoubtedly this would be one reason why these drugs have not reached the market yet. Until it's been tested and all the side effects documented, researched and considered it cannot reach the market.

Also, from what I heard there was no suggestion made that these women were in fact immune to all forms of the HIV virus, only the ones they were carriers of. It may well turn out that this path will be limited to creating immunity for the African strands of the virus.

[jmiller]

Actually, it is troll-like.

Because the only time you ever participate in the General Discussion forum is when you can argue.

Unlike the rest of us who regularily post here.

[bozley05]

He must be one of those academic types.

[tandoc]

He must be one of those academic types.

What's wrong with being academic?

[bozley05]

Nothing I guess, but why would you dedicate your entire life to going to University just so you can prove people wrong?

[Meksilon]

Dude, I don't go to university. I don't even go out of my way to catch the news most of the time. I don't even have a very good memory. But I like to make sure what little information I know is passed on in whole, and when others present incomplete information I like to "fill in the gaps". I don't know very much about HIV, only what I've picked up over the years when I've seen news or documentaries on TV and what I may have read online, or in papers.

All I know is probably what everyone knows. It's a virus, it can be transmitted through sharing needles but is unlikely since unlike many other viruses it dies very quickly when it's out of the body. I knows it's said to be something like 100 times smaller than the pours in latex condoms, and so it can be transmitted through "safe sex" (but is unlikely). The main way it's transmitted is through sexual acts. It's unlikely to transmit during kissing, unless there's an open wound in the mouth. And this makes it one of the most difficult of all viruses to contract.

If it's all useless mind-numbing indecipherable gibberish to you, then please feel free to ignore it. I don't know why you need to complain, but each to their own...