HIV vaccine that transforms cell DNA brings fresh hope

[Chippiewill]

A radical new approach to vaccination seems to completely protect monkeys from HIV, US scientists report.

Vaccines normally train the immune system to fight an infection.

Instead, researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California have altered the DNA of monkeys to give their cells HIV-fighting properties.

The team describe it as "a big deal" and want to start human trials soon. Independent experts say the idea is worth "strong consideration".

This technique uses gene therapy to introduce a new section of DNA inside healthy muscle cells.

That strip of DNA contains the instructions for manufacturing the tools to neutralise HIV, which are then constantly pumped out into the bloodstream.

Experiments, reported in the journal Nature, showed the monkeys were protected from all types of HIV for at least 34 weeks.

As there was also protection against very high doses, equivalent to the amount of new virus that would be produced in a chronically infected patient, the researchers believe the approach may be useful in people who already have HIV.

Lead researcher Prof Michael Farzan told the BBC: "We are closer than any other approach to universal protection, but we still have hurdles, primarily with safety for giving it to many, many people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31511244

From what I've read this isn't a hyper-inflated exaggeration, they have actually discovered a vaccine.

[-:Undertaker:-]

It is amazing how far HIV treatment has come in just two decades given it is a relatively new disease.

[AgnesIO]

Sounds very promising, although a cure would be even better!

[Chris]

Interesting and another step in the right direction by the sounds of it.

[FlyingJesus]

If it actually gets to the stage of human trials that's far better than anything else has really gotten so far, depends on whether the medical boards and stuff will allow it to go ahead though as they seem to enjoy rejecting as many things as possible

[-:Undertaker:-]

The crazy thing is, out there in the jungles right now there could be diseases just waiting for the right people to come across it that could kill hundeds of millions across the globe. Apparently some viruses/diseases can live in soil, wood... anything. Given how much jungle is never touched by humans it's matter of time.


If it actually gets to the stage of human trials that's far better than anything else has really gotten so far, depends on whether the medical boards and stuff will allow it to go ahead though as they seem to enjoy rejecting as many things as possible

but but but the guv'ment keeps us safe with all these regulations

[Chippiewill]

The crazy thing is, out there in the jungles right now there could be diseases just waiting for the right people to come across it that could kill hundeds of millions across the globe. Apparently some viruses/diseases can live in soil, wood... anything. Given how much jungle is never touched by humans it's matter of time.

That's not really the way it works, the chances that an undiscovered virus could infect humans is incredibly unlikely.

[-:Undertaker:-]

That's not really the way it works, the chances that an undiscovered virus could infect humans is incredibly unlikely.

Very likely if you ask me. We think we know a lot more than we actually do about the world, and all the time there are new animals being discovered in parts of the world we haven't even explored let alone the oceans. Plus there's the added bit that it just takes the right conditions for two diseases or one disease to mutate because of a change in circumstances (a well being built nearby, a animal surviving the illness and passing it on). It's scary.

[Chippiewill]

Very likely if you ask me. We think we know a lot more than we actually do about the world, and all the time there are new animals being discovered in parts of the world we haven't even explored let alone the oceans. Plus there's the added bit that it just takes the right conditions for two diseases or one disease to mutate because of a change in circumstances (a well being built nearby, a animal surviving the illness and passing it on). It's scary.

Again Dan, this is misunderstanding the very well understood way of how diseases spread in populations. A virus/disease must be present in a human area for it to have any real chance of being transmittable from person to person.

[GommeInc]

If it actually gets to the stage of human trials that's far better than anything else has really gotten so far, depends on whether the medical boards and stuff will allow it to go ahead though as they seem to enjoy rejecting as many things as possible
Depends if they can turn a profit on it I suppose :P *conspiracy*

[AgnesIO]

The biggest threat we face right now is the overuse of antibiotics (I believe panorama recently covered this, too). All of these nice little illnesses that we can currently cure so easily could soon end up killing millions...

---

And yes, it is sad but the nature of capitalism that a drug will not be released to those who actually need it for a long time given the desire to make a profit out of it.

[-:Undertaker:-]

And yes, it is sad but the nature of capitalism that a drug will not be released to those who actually need it for a long time given the desire to make a profit out of it.

Capitalism is what drives healthcare and medicine.

Developed because of capitalism, not despite it.

[AgnesIO]

Capitalism is what drives healthcare and medicine.

Developed because of capitalism, not despite it.

Such a shame that it developed because of capitalism and yet millions die because of it, too (and your position on foreign aid would let millions more die, too!).

[-:Undertaker:-]

Such a shame that it developed because of capitalism and yet millions die because of it, too

Die because of what?


and your position on foreign aid would let millions more die, too!.

Well no, because my position on foreign aid is that foreign aid doesn't work. I believe in trade and not aid, which is another reason why I believe we'd be better outside of the European Union and signing FTAs with former Commonwealth countries which are often the nations which recieve a lot of our foreign aid. I would much rather be seeing cheap African agricultural products in our supermarket than subsidised French goods: something that would hugely benefit African farmers rather than handing over foreign aid packages which usually end up being used as political weapons/lost due to sheer corruption/damaging African farmers.

It's a nonsense to believe that somebody who opposes foreign aid opposes development in the third world. My belief is aid hurts, rather than helps.

[AgnesIO]

Die because of what?



Well no, because my position on foreign aid is that foreign aid doesn't work. I believe in trade and not aid, which is another reason why I believe we'd be better outside of the European Union and signing FTAs with former Commonwealth countries which are often the nations which recieve a lot of our foreign aid. I would much rather be seeing cheap African agricultural products in our supermarket than subsidised French goods: something that would hugely benefit African farmers rather than handing over foreign aid packages which usually end up being used as political weapons/lost due to sheer corruption/damaging African farmers.

It's a nonsense to believe that somebody who opposes foreign aid opposes development in the third world. My belief is aid hurts, rather than helps.

My suggestion is without good health nations will not develop. Without money people cannot buy vaccines, only the rich. This means people will continually fall ill. This means more deaths. Incidentally, this also increases the poverty as families will have more children, in case some die.

This could all be stopped if people had access to vital vaccines. Which they don't.

[-:Undertaker:-]

My suggestion is without good health nations will not develop. Without money people cannot buy vaccines, only the rich. This means people will continually fall ill. This means more deaths. Incidentally, this also increases the poverty as families will have more children, in case some die.

This could all be stopped if people had access to vital vaccines. Which they don't.

Well that's what economic development is, it doesn't fall out of the sky.

If you want good healthcare to develop in these countries then first you need political stability, you need an economic capitalist policy based on enterprise and no subsidies for special interest groups or failing industries and you need a culture of institutionalism in the country. AKA what we developed during our Industrial Revolution, what the Germans did, the French, the Dutch and later Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.

But it doesn't come from handing it out on a plate and encouraging eternal dependence.

[AgnesIO]

Well that's what economic development is, it doesn't fall out of the sky.

If you want good healthcare to develop in these countries then first you need political stability, you need an economic capitalist policy based on enterprise and no subsidies for special interest groups or failing industries and you need a culture of institutionalism in the country. AKA what we developed during our Industrial Revolution, what the Germans did, the French, the Dutch and later Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.

But it doesn't come from handing it out on a plate and encouraging eternal dependence.

My reference is to vaccines being purchased with foreign aid. This really is important - what is the point in a vaccine where the vast majority of the world who actually need it, can't have it?