AIDS breakthrough?

[AlecWest]

Apparently, researchers were studying the T-Cells of AIDS patients to see why they slowly stopped fighting the HIV virus. They discovered that T-Cells have a sort of "switch" on them, turning them on or off ... and the HIV virus has discovered how to turn them off with their own switch referred to as PD-1. Anyhoo, these researchers (in South Africa) discovered how to disable the PD-1 switch in HIV ... and that when done, the T-Cells reinvigorated themselves.

In short, they didn't find a "cure" for HIV, but they did discover how to disable HIV's PD-1 switch - which it uses to turn off T-Cells. This is probably going to end up on page 17 of your local newspaper ... so I thought I'd let people know about it:

http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/hotnews/68h21949306774.html

Hope springs eternal. Hmm ... here's a thought. A while back, I heard one physician comment that a "cure" for AIDS would be a mixed blessing. While AIDS has raised an awareness to safe-sex practices, it has also taken attention away from other STDs - some of which can be just as bad. He worried that, if AIDS was cured, people would abandon safe-sex practices altogether ... and we might end up seeing a pandemic of syphillis (where you get infected in 2006 - and wake up blind in 2020, with no real warning signs beforehand).

[Abbadon]

Hi,

I would prefer a curable epidemic though. Most STDs can be cured very cheap, HIV is the most expensive and painful slow death man can imagine, I have visited forums full of people telling their own stories and horrors, and believe me: I hope I never get HIV.

[AlecWest]

Hi,

I would prefer a curable epidemic though. Most STDs can be cured very cheap, HIV is the most expensive and painful slow death man can imagine, I have visited forums full of people telling their own stories and horrors, and believe me: I hope I never get HIV.

Very true. There's even been research done in Australia regarding the similarity between the HIV virus and the Herpes virus ... that with a little genetic manipulation, HIV can be programmed to reproduce as Herpes. Given the choice, I'd much rather have Herpes.

Anyhoo, with all these breakthrough discoveries coming hot and heavy, I suspect that sooner or later there WILL be a treatment for HIV. Perhaps not a cure - but at least a means to control it, like diabetes.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

I think I agree with Chris Rock regarding aids.

He always says this in his specials:

Chris Rock says: Nobody is trying really hard to cure it, because there is no money on a cure. Money is on a treatment, slowly squeezing you out of money until you are dry and then they leave you to die.
Then he follows with a Joke:
"Nah.. all doctors are worthless... a joke, they are all a joke. 200 Years of research and they can't even cure athlete's foot!"

I think that instead of trying to find a cure on their own, all researchers should research TOGETHER, sharing the discoveries and spreading the knowledge among them, brainstorming... whatever it takes to do it.

I think that there should be a global research team devoted to find the cure for aids (and even cancer)... financed by Bill and Melinda Gates

I think that if all doctors worked together we would be seeing results in this lifetime, but I seriously doubt it because the bottomline is:

There is no profit in that

[DePutoMadre]

it's a cruel thing... is it true indeed?

[Faustus]

I think that instead of trying to find a cure on their own, all researchers should research TOGETHER, sharing the discoveries and spreading the knowledge among them, brainstorming... whatever it takes to do it.

I think that there should be a global research team devoted to find the cure for aids (and even cancer)... financed by Bill and Melinda Gates

I think that if all doctors worked together we would be seeing results in this lifetime, but I seriously doubt it because the bottomline is:

There is no profit in that

This kinda ties into a discussion I had once about the idea of a non profit public domain corporation.