Houston Doctors May Have Found A Way to Destory HIV

[debbierlus]

Source: rawstory

HOUSTON -- There is real hope that what’s happening in a Houston lab might lead to a cure for HIV.


AP

Researcher holds test tubes with separated HIV infected blood
“We have found an innovative way to kill the virus by finding this small region of HIV that is unchangeable,” Dr. Sudhir Paul of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston said.

Dr. Paul and Dr. Miguel Escobar aren’t talking about just suppressing HIV – they’re talking about destroying it permanently by arming the immune system with a new weapon lab tests have shown to be effective.

Ford Stuart has been HIV positive for 15 years. He’s on a powerful drug cocktail that keeps the disease in check.

“I’m on four different medications. Three of them are brand new, and it’s the first time that I’ve ever been non-detectible,” Stuart said. “I’m down to about – just for the HIV – about nine pills per day, five in the morning and four at night.”

But Stuart knows HIV mutates, and eventually it will learn how to outsmart his medications.

“The virus is truly complex and has many tricks up its sleeve,” Paul said.

But Dr. Paul thinks he’s cracked a code.

“We’ve discovered the weak spot of HIV,” he said.

Paul and his team have zeroed in on a section of a key protein in HIV’s structure that does not mutate.

“The virus needs at least one constant region, and that is the essence of calling it the Achilles heel,” Paul said.

That Achilles heel is the doctors’ way in. They take advantage of it with something called an abzyme.

It’s naturally produced by people, like lupus patients. When they applied that abzyme to the HIV virus, it permanently disarmed it.

“What we already have in our hand are the abzymes that we could be infusing into the human subjects with HIV infection, essentially to move the virus,” Paul said.

Basically, their idea could be used to control the disease for people who already have it and prevent infection for those at risk.

The theory has held up in lab and animal testing. The next step is human trials.

Meanwhile, every day in Houston, three people are diagnosed with HIV.

The doctors still need funding to launch human trials. In the world of HIV research, that’s often where things fall apart.

“Clinical trials are very expensive,” Paul said.

“That is the worry of the researcher. This is what nightmares are made of – that after 30 years of work, you find it doesn’t work,” Paul said.

But so far, it is working.

“This is the holy grail of HIV research, to develop a preventative vaccine,” Paul said.

“If we can get the viral loads down to a manageable level, that will preclude the need for these conventional drugs,” Escobar said.

Still, even if everything goes well, it’s at least five years before the research could help people with HIV.

The doctors know people like Ford Stuart are waiting.

“There are so many people struggling with the disease because it affects not only your body, but also your psyche, how you perceive yourself,” he said.

If nothing else, the research is promising for the tens of millions waiting for a cure.


Read more: http://www.kvue.com/news/state/stories/072908kvuehivbreakthrough-cb.14e217f8.html

---

I hope, I hope, I hope....

End this plague!

[underpants]

1. Excellent news

(fingers crossed)

[MsKandice01]

2. Wow, that would be amazing!!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

[Indenturedebtor]

3. Fantastic! So many people have been looking for the unchangeable bit of HIV for so many years

I'm quite certain that abyzymes are only one method of possible attack here now that the achilles heel has been found!

[NJCher]

4. why, it's enough to ruin a republican's day

Cher

[That Is Quite Enough]

5. Ooh, I can't rec this enough.

[closeupready]

6. That's terrific! :-) Thanks for brightening my day!

:)

[Frisbee]

7. Great news indeed!

I guess coming from Texas, this would just about make up for giving us W.

Do I understand how things work correctly when I assume that the University will sell the patent to a pharmaceutical company who will then bring it to market if this does indeed turn out to be the discovery everyone has been waiting for? If so, is there any way to assure that it is available to all who need it, especially if it is killing a cash cow of a big pharma company? I have no more faith (well, maybe just a little) in big pharma doing what's right than I do in the big oil companies. If this does indeed pan out, it would be a sin to keep it from anyone, anywhere, who needs it.

[The Croquist]

104. Good Idea!

Lets take this away from the people who created it. What right do they have to benefit from it?

On a more serious note. Who did provide the funding for this research? If it was government funding the government should have a share of the product and the profit.* Then the government can decide what to do with their share. But confiscating something of value from it's creators is the best way to stop any progress from being made.

* I'm not sure what to call it. Is it a drug, an enzyme a chemical or what?

[Oak2004]

117. Profit and ownership aren't the only reasons for innovation: in fact, they stifle it

From the New York Times (don't have the link anymore, damnit)

"When Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in 1955, he waived the patent process because he wanted to protect the public as quickly as possible and thought it far more important than making money. When the vaccine was first introduced, the United States had an average of 45,000 cases of polio annually. By 1962 there were 910.

Salk never earned a penny from that discovery."

Without free exchange of information, it's impossible to build upon the work of others. If current intellectual property laws were in existence in the 19th century I doubt we'd have half the progress we had during the age of invention (doubt it? Who do you think first invented the telegraph? If you answered Morse, you're wrong. Think Edison first invented the electric lightbulb? Wrong again. But they were able to carry on with their (far more successful) variations because patent laws then were not what they are today).

But lets put money aside for a moment, and take a look at ethics. Money is not a force of nature. People invented money. Money exists to serve people. People do not exist to serve money, despite the best efforts of a select elite to convince us otherwise for their own benefit. No one has the moral right to profit through causing the deaths of other human beings whether they cause those deaths through active commission or through the intentional refusal to provide the basic needs of others when it is within their ability to do so. To have a monopoly on the one substance which would preserve life, and to refuse to make that substance available because one would not make a sufficient profit on its sale, is immoral. It may be technically legal, but then in Bush's America, so too is waterboarding.

No, neither the researchers, nor anyone else, have the moral right to withhold this discovery from those who need it, for the greater glory of profit, and it is imperative that people of conscience insure that this does not happen. If that means "taking it away" from the researchers, so be it.

[hamsterjill]

116. Hey - don't blame us for W!!!

He's not really a Texan. Texas doesn't make 'em THAT stupid!!!

[varun]

8. I hope this one works!

Good news indeed.

[AndyTiedye]

9. Very Much Kicked and Recommended

:kick:

[1monster]

10. So many young men that I knew died of this disease. I hope they have found a way to

defeat it before more people contract and die from it...

[aquart]

52. Me, too.

But news like this always makes me cry for the ones who couldn't hold out till the cure.

And I still miss.

[LiberalFighter]

11. I hope it involves sterilizing Bush

[Warpy]

12. Well, that explains why my many needle sticks in 25 years of nursing

never resulted in HIV infection.

Lupus is good for something. Who knew?

[JerseygirlCT]

15. Yeah, that's really interesting, isn't it?

Makes me jump to wondering whether there's any connection in the seeming increase in all these other auto-immune problems and the advent of widespread AIDs...

I know, no science there, just pure conjecture. But it's still all so unknown.

[Warpy]

19. It's been known for almost 20 years

that people with autoimmune diseases like lupus and Sjogren's syndrome have false positives to the early HIV antibody tests.

I'd always hoped that little factoid would lead to the discovery of a reclusive little retrovirus responsible for our diseases, too, but it doesn't seem to have been followed up in that direction.

[pinto]

36. I bet this research becomes a two way street. Seems they've got a lead on

the specific enzyme (abzyme) at work here - found largely in HIV- people with lupus and a small group of HIV+ people that are termed non progressors (their infection has not led to AIDS > 10 years.)

[TZ]

26. Interesting

As you know my company does a lot immunolgical research including on Lupus..I could see them help with clinical trials on this...I would love to work on something like this...:)

[DainBramaged]

13. Hope for a cure, and soon, not 10 years from now, soon

[JerseygirlCT]

14. Oh my goodness, wouldn't that be wonderful! nt

[enki23]

16. But, but, but...

All they *really* need is Reiki, magnet therapy, chelation, raspberry leaves, and tumeric tablets. Everyone knows HIV doesn't cause AIDS. Vaccines do. And abortions. And toxins which build up when your tofu contains genetically modified soybeans.

[amitten]

94. Reiki can indeed relieve pain. No one thinks it cures AIDS. n/t

[enki23]

96. wow, way to parse that bit of sarcasm for an assault on your favorite woo.

i suppose if i intended to troll for woos, this would be the way to do it. but i'm not really, so... nevermind.

[valerief]

109. LOL!!! Yeah, magic jazz hands is the way to cure AIDS. Forget

about using science to do it.

Maybe stuff like this news article will populate the health forum instead of all that Reiki pseudoscience stuff crapping it up.

[ronnykmarshall]

17. Oh please let this be true.

[BayjanDem]

18. Stats this week

about AIDS and the African American community had me depressed. We make up half the cases. But this is encouraging news, Hopefully there will be a cure soon.

[debbierlus]

20. I hope so. I am so jaded that I believe Big Pharm has probably worked to STOP an AIDS cure

All that profit lost...

And, then, all the AIDS money for Third World country that never reaches the government for prevention. Nope, bypasses the countries health system only to go directly to the pharmaceutical companies.

A cure is only one part of it. Big Pharm will work to block it.

[TZ]

25. Complete bullshit

I've interviewed with several companies who have HIV vaccines in clinical trials. Oh and NIH has a WHOLE DEPARTMENT devoted to HIV vaccine research.
For all you tinfoil hat types--it would take far more money to suppress research by the Pharmas than anyone with half a mind would be willing to spend..now investing new money in risky research..thats a different story.

[TechBear_Seattle]

47. There is a big difference between research for a TREATMENT and research for a CURE

There is a lot of research going on for a cure -- I know; I was a test subject in a level 1 vaccine study a few years ago. But there is a lot more research being done for a treatment, medicines that a person would have to take for the rest of their lives (at great profit for the company) in order to keep the disease in check.

These two areas of research are not incompatable, as a vaccine will do nothing to help those who already have the virus.

[TZ]

50. But NOBODY is suppressing the research

And actually...there are vaccines that CAN help people already infected with a disease..Vaccine no longer means only those not infected..There are cancer vaccines in trials that attack tumors.
I'm betting you someone is working on something like that for infected people.

[kimmerspixelated]

54. But how can vaccines really help long term

when in actuality they suppress immune systems, among other things. I realize you are pro-drugs and vaccines, but I have read in many, many "scientific articles" that there is no solid evidence that vaccines work the way the Pharm co. would lead you to believe(with many fatalities to prove this)and many etc.'s, etc.'s

In countries that had no vac. certain diseases disappeared anyway-due to the fact that in general the world has better nutrition, but mostly better SANITATION than the old days. What is it they(MSM) always say-"The best defense is to wash your hands"!!! That is the real answer-Better sanitation. So easy-so simple to explain-BUT< NOT Much money in it!!!!

Please don't misquote me-I am not saying hand-washing is the cure for aids! And also take a deep breath before you decide to be insulting.

[Grinchie]

61. Thats because the research has already been suppressed for over 60 years

Look at the works of Royal Rife, and how he was relegated to the dustbin of great inventors and visionaries.

Now we have Joh Kanzius who just announced a similar technolgy, but stumbled onto a means to burn seawater with his device. (Simple HHO production based on resonance of Sodium atoms)

Does anyone question that Ozone is a major component of Smog as dictated by the EPA and California Air Resources Board? If you don't, maybe you should take a look at a basic chemistry book and see that Hydrocarbons and CO2 don't create that much Ozone at all, and the major polluters use Ozone as yet another distraction to protect themselves from their outrageous polluting industies.

Ozone is a natural part of the Atmosphere, and it is created when Oxygen is bombarded in the upper atmosphere by Ultra Violet light, which energizes the Oxygen O2 to become O3. O3 is heavier than O2, and descends to Earth, reacting with pollution and other compounds in the atmosphere by releasing the extra energy it gained when it absorbed the UV earlier.

O3 or Ozone can also react with water and form H2O2, which is nothing more than Hydrogen Peroxide, which also helps oxidize pollutants into a more inert form.

Biologically, Oxygen is required for Mammals, and it plays an important part in our bodies. The cells in out bodies are protected from the oxidizing effects of Oxygen when healthy. When our cells become unhealthy, they simply oxidize and "Burn Up", then being flushed out of our body. Oxygen does not only help remove the sickly and spent cells, but it will also oxidize other pollutants in our body into a form that our Kidneys and liver can more easily remove.

The EPA and other health agencies that receive huge grants do not want you to know that Ozone is Plain Oxygen that contains a bit more energy than the more stable O2.

For example, it is estimated that you breath in huge amounts of fine particulate material everyday. If you live in the sity, it is amazing how much invisible dust there is, but you can be assurred that you are breathing it in, sometimes deep into your lungs. Have you ever considered how the body get s rid of all these contaminents?

For example, people breathing Ozone for the first time often complain of Sore Throats, minor cough, headaches, etc. This is what the EPA plays upon when they issue grave warnings regarding Ozone exposure. This effect is due to your polluted body reacting to the highly oxidizing effects of Ozone, which is reacting with the crap in the airways. If you are polluted enough, the body may well go into a "Healing Crisis" where it struggles to clean out the newly oxidized pollutants through the natural mechanisms. As time goes on, the people that were sensitive to Ozone initially become invigorated and no longer are bothered by it.

Has anyone in the regulatory agencies asked why this occurs? If fact, you will notice if you read the reports carefully, quite a bit of wordplay become noticable, where the Anti Ozone industry places technically correct but out of context information into a report in order to further sell that Ozone is unnatural and unhealthy. In fact, it was most likely the cause of the huge animals in the Jurassic Era, when it is estimated that Oxygen levels were 30% higher than they are today, blanketting the earth with more Ozone than we could imagine.

Although there are reports that suggest that the human mortality rate is higher after an Ozone alert, there is not one report anywhere that I could find that anyone has ever been directly killed by Ozone exposure. If in fact the reality is that Ozone exposure promotes the Oxidation and subsequent flushing of toxins from the body, and that some people cannot handle this response, I would have to say that the established scientific community is working very hard to avoid working from that side of the equation. In fact, established science and industry is pushing for more controls, and maybe even taking away our right to utilise Ozone for the beneficial effect it provides for very little cost. The current limit is .005 Parts Per Million, and this amount is too low to kill germs in your house.

By the way, Ozone will kill anaerobic bacteria, ascarids or parasites, while leaving healthy human cells alone.

Nikola Tesla patented an Ozone Generator in the late 1896. He was surrounded by Ozone most of his life, as Ozone is generated when Oxygen is excited by high voltage electricty. He lived to the ripe old age of 87.

Ozone is used commercially in Europe for Swimming pools -- No toxic Chlorine required.

I just stumbled onto importance of Ozone a few weeks ago, and I am totally sold of the theory behind its healing properties. They do not teach this stuff in schools, and you will not hear it on the mainstream media, because too many industries make a profit on your ill-health.

Do your own homework! Do not trust the established scientific community. We have all seen what Corporate mis-information can do to shape our societies perception of fact vs myth. Look at Bush and Global Warming. Look at General Motors EV1.

[AtheistCrusader]

62. I have three air purifiers that generate ozone in my home.

So does my wife's hair dryer. It's all about dosage. O3 will oxidize living cells you need as well. It can actually burn your lungs.

Sort of like water, it's good for you, and you can use it, but too much will kill you.

Check the sources on this for studies related to it's potentially harmful effects, in higher doses. http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=50328

[Grinchie]

103. Why go to the source of the Misinformation on Ozone? Your source is compromised.

Do you really think the Lung Association is a beneficial organization? It is a for profit (themselves) coalition of Corporate and Politically backed interests. They survive by "Supporting a good cause", while ignoring real research and evidence which is freely available outside the the U.S. They depend on Corporate funded research grants that promotes one sided and incomplete research, a lot like Monsanto with the GMO foods that we are being force fed without proper testing. I can produce dozens of reports where GMO foods have been proven toxic, allergenic and deadly. Yet we are eating them daily, and lobbies keep GMO Source labeling off the market.

As I said previously, show me one single report that shows a healthy person being killed by Ozone. It cannot be found. Healthy cells are protected from Ozone by a protein layer. Unhealthy or weak cells are not. Those are the cells that you NEED to flush out of your system, as well as the dusts, spores, bacteria, viruses etc. We shed a huge number of cells each day, and cells are replaced all the time. This is natural. If your body is so sick that the normal cleansing functions are reduced, you just become a dirty bag of water, getting filthier each day.

Now if you were to show someone who died from the body being overwhelmed from the pollution released by the oxidation of toxins or unhealthy cells, I would definately say that they were borderline to start with. If you are sick with cancer, or smoke like a chimney, Ozone will rock your world and you better be prepared for the consequences of flushing out tons of toxic gunk. If you can get over the OMG I'm full of pollutants phase, Ozone is harmless, at least it is for me.

After I made my Ozone generator, I cleansed moderately for about a week, and yes, it was uncomfortable, but now I hardly notice it. I have more energy than before.

.005 Parts Per Million is too low to kill Bacteria and Viruses, and they (EPA, CARB) set this limit on purpose to limit Ozone's use in Hospitals for disinfection duties. They would rather spend big bucks of Lysol and other high falooting disinfectants than actually use something that is cost effective, non toxic and good for you.

[salguine]

57. I feel the same way you do. I once would have scoffed at the notion of

Big Pharm having these doctors meet with "accidents". Or acquiring the cure and making it so costly that no one can afford it. In any case, if this does turn out to be a cure, some financial interest will find a way to get its fucking claws into it, and it won't help the people who need it. I'd bet on it.

[knixphan]

59. The cynic in me is sayin' the same thing...

The optimist is grasping for a foothold...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. wow in all this anti immigration drama, Dr. Sudhir Paul is an immigrant from india

probably on one of those visas that this entire website rails against

i really really hope this research or quite frankly any research bring us a cure soon

:applause:

[Auggie]

22. Recommended

[whistle]

23. Disseminate the cure ASAP, then shut down the CIA for good

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. what does the cia have to do with it

[whistle]

28. You've not heard that AIDS is a man-made disease

<snip>
Monday, May 14, 2007
AIDS = Man Made Disease? C.I.A plot?


There are a number of theories about AIDS which make claims about the origin and/or nature of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS that differ radically from mainstream beliefs. These theories range from claims that HIV is not the principal cause, to suggestions that AIDS was the inadvertent result of medical experiments, to claims that HIV was deliberately created.

MAN-MADE ORIGIN OF AIDS:

Some scientists and others have theorized that AIDS is a man-made disease. These theories generally state that the disease was designed to deliberately wipe out a certain segment of the population in an act of genocide and/or was created as biowarfare research. Others have theorized alternative natural or accidental origins for the disease.

Jakob Segal, a biology professor at Humboldt University in the former East Germany, proposes that HIV was engineered at a U.S. military laboratory at Fort Detrick, located in Frederick, Maryland by splicing together two other viruses, Visna and HTLV-1. According to his theory, the new virus, created between 1977 and 1978, was tested on prison inmates who had volunteered for the experiment in exchange for early release. It was through these prisoners that the virus was spread to the population at large, starting with the gay community. Segal was accused of being a Soviet disinformation agent by defector Vasili Mitrokhin.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai was alleged to have stated that she believes that the biological agent causing AIDS is not natural.<1>
KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin, the KGB planted disinformation suggesting the CIA or other agencies created HIV, in a plot to destabilize the Western world through an East German physicist, Jakob Segal, in the mid 1980s.

Dr. Alan Cantwell, author of AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic and Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot, believes that HIV is a genetically modified organism developed by U.S. Government scientists; that it was introduced into the population through Hepatitis B experiments performed on gay and bisexual men between 1978-1981 in Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Denver, and Chicago. Cantwell claims these experiments were directed by Dr. Wolf Szmuness; and that there is an ongoing government and media cover-up regarding the origin of the AIDS epidemic. Similar theories have been advanced by Dr. Robert B. Strecker, Matilde Krim and by Milton William Cooper, author of Behold A Pale Horse.

Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, author of Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola. Nature, Accident or Intentional? and Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare, has advanced the theory that the AIDS virus was engineered by such U.S. Government defense contractors as Litton Bionetics for the purposes of bio-warfare and "population control." Dr. Horowitz believes that Jews, blacks, and Hispanics are prime targets in these attempts. He cites the historical preoccupation with eugenics on the part of the American medical establishment as evidence of a greater conspiracy to commit genocide.

http://planetmental.blogspot.com/2007/05/aids-man-made-disease-cia-plot-look-for.html

...Also can listen to the NPR 25 year anniversary report on AIDS and HIV at this link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5450391

[TZ]

29. Complete and utter bunk

HIV was found in AFRICA.
It evolved from SIV found in Chimps.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5012268.stm

Stop spreading this pseudoscientific crap.

[fudge stripe cookays]

37. Duh.

The first case of AIDS was in Africa, around 1976. Randy Shilts documented it in his book.

[BreweryYardRat]

73. I've heard something about a black teen here in the '50s who was retroactively diagnosed with it.

I'm afraid I don't remember the details, but they believed the guy had carried AIDS based on the variety of infections he had -- including the thrush tongue fungus.

Could you clarify this one way or the other, please?

[AtheistCrusader]

74. There are other immune system problems that can cause similar symptoms as AIDS.

If he was actually diagnosed with AIDS, from that time period, it would be worldwide news. You can't suppress a report like that.

Edit: Incorrect term in the title.

[Warpy]

89. It was worldwide news

but since Dr. Googles generally don't read the scientific journals this stuff gets published in, well, they missed it.

I know they isolated HIV from frozen tissue from a teenager who died in North Carolina in 1969. This happened in the late 80s, some time after the virus itself had been isolated and researchers knew what to look for. The tissue samples had been kept because the total collapse of an immune system in 1969 with no apparent cause was something they wanted to keep track of.

HIV is an old simian disease. The present strains are estimated to have crossed into humans before 1920 by virologists tracing its mutations backwards. The transfer most likely occurred during the butchery of bush meat by hunters with nicked fingers.

Only the social changes in Africa brought by roads and cities allowed it to become such a widespread killer.

Of course, this isn't nearly as fun to think about as stupid stories about clumsy polio researchers and evil CIA agents in the 50s, but that never stopped a conspiracy theorist with an active imagination and no real knowledge of the subject.

[Posteritatis]

121. The actual stories are usually more interesting, at least IMO

With the exceptions of the ones that actually existed (or almost did, like the Business Plot), they're just lazy thinking. Reality's usually more fascinating, weirder, and almost always more complex.

Could you recommend any resources/pages/articles/etc offhand for a relatively medically-unedujmacated historian to learn more about the history of this thing? I've been flipping back and forth through the discussion and I'm getting increasingly annoyed by my ability to confidently follow a lot of it.

[Warpy]

123. The CDC is the place to start

but unfortunately it, like the other informative sites, is drenched in medicalese. I'd suggest picking up a paperback medical dictionary if you really want to follow up on this stuff, it can help considerably in deciphering dense medical prose.

Medscape is another site that can be very informative, but it suffers from the same obfuscation. It requires registration but is free.

Parsing a Google search correctly can also be a help. For instance, "emergence HIV species jump" might get you to the articles you want; for instance it turned up an older article at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1326444 estimating the jump at 1931+/- 12 years. It has since been revised downward toward the earlier part of that range, but much of the information in that article still applies. It's always helpful to tell Google exactly what you want when you go looking for stuff, especially medical stuff.

If you're near a library with a medical school, you can do searches of the journals in their periodicals section--great when you're picking apart the nitty gritty stuff from virologists and geneticists around the world.

I'm glad someone is interested in doing a history of this pandemic in laymen's terms. There are certainly enough boneheaded conspiracy theories that need to die an ignominious death, killed off by facts.

Thanks for considering it.

[Posteritatis]

124. I'm looking more out of personal fill in the knowledge hole-ness

I keep worrying I'm becoming too specialized and try to get one or two things that are wildly beyond my main studies/interests to learn about at any given time. ;)

There's far more qualified people than I working on a broader history of the epidemic, though; medical history is a growing subfield in history, and one that I almost went into. (My undergraduate thesis was on mental illness in part - another area which is laden down with boneheaded conspiracy theories, and which I'm contemplating getting back into.) I've studied some on the history of the disease for educational projects, but that's much more recent than the origin or early spread of it.

I definitely have access to the library resources right now, since I'm finishing up an MA at a major research university with a suitably mighty library system (and medical schools); since I'm heading out of the field for a year or two after I finish here I'm probably going to go on a most epic periodical pillage to have some stuff to read/work on for awhile.

I knew that the species jump was awhile back, but I was surprised (and impressed!) to know that people had traced it that far back. I've got just enough background study in evolution to appreciate how mindbreaking researching that sort of thing has got to be.

Thanks for the info, anyway; just wanted some obvious sources/searches that would be better than Wikipedia or the like.

[pinto]

46. Please don't do this.

:hi: I'm speaking as a member here, not a mod. Thanks.

[kimmerspixelated]

56. I'm glad you posted this.

I've seen it many times in all kinds of journals. Mainstream medicine has tried to cover it up. Not sure what to think of it all, but like most diseases, there is always a lot of interesting twists in the history. The truth will surface one day.

[4dsc]

75. I was informed in 1975

While stationed at Letterman Army Medical Center in 1975, I had an individual who worked in the nuclear medical department, tell me that the Army had develope a virus that could give some cancer in about 6-8 years.. Sound familiar?? I believe he was describing the AIDS cancer..

[fudge stripe cookays]

78. AIDS isn't a cancer. It's an immune system disorder.

Two completely different things.

[4dsc]

107. Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

He was describing that cancer's that most AIDS patients develope.. I found it odd that he was informing me this is 1975...

[Dreamer Tatum]

81. Some guy told you something 33 years ago?

Well, that settles it, then!

[Dreamer Tatum]

83. Here is the achilles heel of that stupidassed conspiracy theory

It's ALWAYS the CIA that developed it. Always. Suddenly, every other intelligence agency in the world was playing Peter, Paul, and Mary records while baking banana bread, while the *eeeeeeevil* CIA developed a virus that NO RESEARCHER SINCE, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, has identified as man-made. The only people who claim it is manmade rely on THEORIES, rather than on scientific or even forensic research.

Some people are less interested in a solution to a problem and are more interested in assigning blame. Those people are the ones who believe AIDS is man-made, and I pity their feeblemindedness.

[NickB79]

92. HIV may date back to the 1930s

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_7_157/ai_59624228

"The two main branches of the AIDS virus family, known as HIV-1 and HIV-2, probably infected human populations several times before spreading to epidemic proportions, Korber says. Confirming its accuracy, the model correctly placed in the family tree the genetic sequences of the earliest known HIV, found in a 1959 blood sample, and an HIV strain that appeared in Thailand in 1987, she says."

Well, you know what this means, don't you? It means that those bastards at the CIA have a time machine (probably built by Nikolai Tesla himself), and they actually went back in time to a decade before the CIA was even created (in 1947) and infected a poor innocent African man with a virus that would take 50 years to eventually spread worldwide! Talk about evil!!!

[Grinchie]

105. HIV First showed up in 1971.

I remember my father who was a doctor describing an increase in Kaposi Sarcoma found in predominately Gay Men during a drive to school.

It was not even called HIV back then, but it was starting to become noticeable in L.A. around that time.

I personally believe that the disease was spread unintentionally through ignorance. One report was that a batch of Smallpox vaccine was made manufactured with serum from the Green Monkey, which contained the virus. There was a worldwide campaign by the WHO to rid the world of Smallpox, and Africa was the last area where the vaccine was used. My father who is knowledgeable in these areas also related that this could have been a primary cause.

[quidam56]

112. MRSA showed up in 1974. Ever heard of it ?

www.caringbridge.org/visit/timmullins

[Grinchie]

119. I've heard about MRSA and it is a big problem today

Back in the 70's, I had the opportunity to witness the maintenance person clean out the septic tanks of the school I was going to while I worked there over the summer break. This maintenance person decided to "Fertilize" the soccer field with the nightsoil from the septic tank.

The next sememster, when the student returned and started playing soccer, nearly all of them came down with the most horrific staph infections I have ever witnessed in my entire life. The number of affected students completely overwhelmed the school nurse. Some of my friend had to use crutches cause they could not walk with the pain.

As I was not a soccer player, I avoided most of it, but I remember wearing flip flops one day, and another student stepped on my foot. This became infected and I could barely walk within 3 days. I treated myself with Hydrogen Peroxide and was able to get rid of it.

However, after witnessing the dumping of human waste on the Soccer Field and then seeing the result of that decision on the student body months later, I became a lot most fastidious about washing hands and protecting my feet from injury.

I do not believe it was necessarily Multi-Drug Resistant Staph Aureaus (MRSA), but it certainly was a very fast acting, painful, productive infection that spread like wildfire.

In 2005, the Sewer Main in Honolulu burst after torrential rains, and dumped an estimated 5,000,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Ali Kai canal in Waikiki. It contaminated the ocean for months, and one person that fell into the canal by accident, later died from infection. At this point, it is found that MRSA can survive quite happily in warm beach sand, and Hawaii is trying to quash any news of this in the mainstream media, especially since the economy is tanking big time, especially in Hawaii.

Ozone apparently will kill MRSA...

Another bacteria going bad is Clostridium Difficile (C. Diff) This bug is normally part of the natural flora of our gut, but recently, a new strain has appeared that is killing normally resistant people. It is possible that the last 10 years of feeding on GMO food, complete with the genetic code of Antibiotic resistance in the cells of the food, may have transferred horizontally into the simple bacterial lifeforms inside our gut.

Their is increasing evidence that you are indeed what you eat.

Is your Colon Roundup Ready?

[jonestonesusa]

27. Wonderful, hopeful news!

Thanks for the post.

[Libby2]

30. Fantastic!

[derby378]

31. Please, please, please...

Let this be the avenue by which we conquer not only AIDS, but other viral diseases as well!

Fingers crossed...!

[ceile]

32. Wow.

Fingers crossed....

[pinto]

33. "UT pathologists believe they have pinpointed Achilles heel of HIV"

UT pathologists believe they have pinpointed Achilles heel of HIV

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the armor of the virus that continues to kill millions.

The weak spot is hidden in the HIV envelope protein gp120. This protein is essential for HIV attachment to host cells, which initiate infection and eventually lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Normally the body's immune defenses can ward off viruses by making proteins called antibodies that bind the virus. However, HIV is a constantly changing and mutating virus, and the antibodies produced after infection do not control disease progression to AIDS. For the same reason, no HIV preventative vaccine that stimulates production of protective antibodies is available.

The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention. Sudhir Paul, Ph.D., pathology professor in the UT Medical School, said, "Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells. Equally important, HIV does not want this constant region to provoke the body's defense system. So, HIV uses the same constant cellular attachment site to silence B lymphocytes - the antibody producing cells. The result is that the body is fooled into making abundant antibodies to the changeable regions of HIV but not to its cellular attachment site. Immunologists call such regions superantigens. HIV's cleverness is unmatched. No other virus uses this trick to evade the body's defenses."

Paul is the senior author on a paper about this theory in a June issue of the journal Autoimmunity Reviews. Additional data supporting the theory are to be presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico City in two studies titled "Survivors of HIV infection produce potent, broadly neutralizing IgAs directed to the superantigenic region of the gp120 CD4 binding site" and "Prospective clinical utility and evolutionary implication of broadly neutralizing antibody fragments to HIV gp120 superantigenic epitope."

<snip>

"This is an entirely new finding. It is a novel antibody that appears to be very effective in killing the HIV virus. The main question now is if this can be applied to developing vaccine and possibly used as a microbicide to prevent sexual transmission," said David C. Montefiori, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research & Development at Duke University Medical Center. The abzymes are now under development for HIV immunotherapy by infusion into blood. They could also be used to guard against sexual HIV transmission as topical vaginal or rectal formulations.

"HIV is an international priority because we have no defense against it," Paul said. "Left unchecked, it will likely evolve into even more virulent forms. We have learned a lot from this research about how to induce the production of the protective abzymes on demand. This is the Holy Grail of HIV research -- development of a preventative HIV vaccine."

Source: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

http://www.physorg.com/news135360794.html

[StateRed]

34. good

hope this is true

[silverweb]

35. Wonderful news!

And if they can find the specific abzyme that works against HIV, they can do it for hepatitis, influenza, and many other viral illnesses.

It's criminal that these doctors have to search for funding. Absolutely insane. The National Institutes of Health should be backing them up every step of the way!

[pinto]

38. (personal aside) I know this research is a ways from being trialed,

yet I can't help but get a lump in my throat. HIV's different for everyone, but it is a rocky road for all.

The science seems basic and sound to this layman. (Identifying a link on the protein shell that *doesn't* mutate and an enzyme that effectively and functionally neutralizes it.)

I'd love to know that 3-5 years out a medical end to all this was feasible.

[Avalux]

41. Me too.

:hug:

[NorthCarolina]

39. If true I cannot imagine the drug companies EVER letting this become available

because treating the symptoms is WAY more lucrative than curing the disease.

[TZ]

51. Yes..just like they don't want to end treating cancer

so they developed a VACCINE to PREVENT cancer.
There's waay more profit in a preventative and cure than there is in continuing treatment. Otherwise why would ANY company make vaccines...
I'm sick of this idiot mentality:banghead:

[kimmerspixelated]

55. Fine!

Many of us are sick of MS Medicine poisoning our bodies! Let us have our opinions! We are not idiots! We don't call you an idiot!

[mopinko]

86. me too.

but don't worry. some day they will be faced with a life and death choice, and they will change their tunes.

and in the meantime, i am happy to have medicine to treat my problems, which is just a whole lot easier to do than finding cures to stuff that is not even very well understood. it ain't poison. it is letting me live a useful life instead of being an invalid.

i join your :banghead:

[FloridaJudy]

40. Please let it be true!

We health care workers have had our hopes raised and then dashed so often in the past 25+ years. I'm praying this is finally the Magic Bullet.

[sellitman]

42. G_D Speed.

Time for a Billionaire to step forward and fund these good doctors.

George Soros or the like.

[Pierre.Suave]

43. It would be awesome

if this comes to be a cure. There are so many that need it.

[enid602]

44. traduccion por medio de computadora

Traduci este articulo al castellano por medio de un programa de computadora; asi es muy cruda. Sigue:


Los doctores de Houston dicen que ellos pueden haber encontrado un modo de destruir el VIH
A la 1h20 CDT el miércoles, 30 de julio de 2008
Por SOTAVENTO MCGUIRE KVUE Noticias
HOUSTON - hay verdadera esperanza que que pasa en un laboratorio de Houston podría conducir a una cura para el VIH.
AP
El investigador sostiene tubos de ensayo con el VIH separado la sangre infectada " hemos encontrado un modo innovador de matar el virus por encontrando esta pequeña región de VIH que es inmutable, " el Doctor Sudhir Paul de la Universidad de Texas la Facultad de medicina en Houston dijo.

El Doctor Paul y el Doctor Miguel Escobar no hablan de la justa supresión del VIH - ellos hablan de la destrucción que esto permanentemente por armando el sistema inmunológico con un nuevo laboratorio de arma prueba han mostrado para ser eficaz.
Ford Estuardo ha sido el VIH positivo durante 15 años. Él está sobre un cóctel de medicina(droga) poderoso que guarda(mantiene) la enfermedad en la comprobación.
" Estoy sobre cuatro medicaciones diferentes. Tres de ellos son nuevos, y esto es la primera vez que alguna vez he estado no detectable, " dijo Estuardo. " Estoy abajo a aproximadamente - solamente(justo) para el VIH - aproximadamente nueve píldoras por día, cinco por la mañana y cuatro de noche. "
Pero Estuardo sabe que el VIH se transforma, y tarde o temprano esto aprenderá a engañar sus medicaciones.
" El virus es realmente complejo y tiene muchos trucos encima de su manga, " dijo Paul.

Pero el Doctor Paul piensa que él ha rajado un código.
" Hemos descubierto el punto débil de VIH, " dijo él.
Paul y su equipo han puesto a cero en sobre una sección de una proteína clave en la estructura del VIH que no se transforma.
" Las necesidades de virus al menos una región constante, y es la esencia de llamada de ello el talón de Aquiles, " dijo Paul.
Aquel talón de Aquiles es el camino de los doctores en. Ellos lo aprovechan con algo llamó un abzyme.
Naturalmente es producido por la gente, como pacientes lupus. Cuando ellos aplicaron esto abzyme al virus de VIH, esto permanentemente lo desarmaba.
" Lo que ya tenemos en nuestra mano son el abzymes que nosotros podríamos infundir en el humano sujeta con la infección de VIH, esencialmente mover el virus, " dijo Paul.

Básicamente, su idea podría ser usada controlar la enfermedad para la gente que ya lo tiene y previene la infección para aquellos en peligro.
La teoría se ha mantenido firme en el laboratorio y pruebas de animal. El siguiente paso es experimentos con seres humanos.
Mientras tanto, cada día en Houston, tres personas son diagnosticadas con el VIH.
Los doctores todavía necesitan el financiar para lanzar experimentos con seres humanos. En el mundo de investigación de VIH, esto es a menudo donde las cosas se deshacen.
" Los ensayos clínicos son muy caros, " dijo Paul.
" Es el preocupar del investigador. Esto es lo que las pesadillas son hechas de - que después de 30 años de trabajo, usted encuentra esto no trabaja, " dijo Paul.
Pero hasta ahora, esto trabaja.

" Esto es el Santo Grial de investigación de VIH, desarrollar una vacuna preventiva, " dijo Paul.
" Si podemos conseguir las cargas virales abajo a un nivel manejable, que excluirá la necesidad de estas medicinas(drogas) convencionales, " dijo Escobar.
De todos modos incluso si todo va bien, es al menos cinco años antes de que la investigación podría ayudar a la gente con el VIH.
Los doctores conocen a la gente como el Ford Estuardo espera.
" Hay tantas personas que luchan con la enfermedad porque esto afecta no sólo su cuerpo, pero también su psique, como usted se percibe, " dijo él.
Si nada más, la investigación promete para unas decenas de millones de espera de una cura.

[Lautremont]

45. Now if only they can find a way to destroy it, too!

[bluevoter4life]

48. This is FANTASTIC news

Best headline I have read in quite a while. I cannot recommend this enough. Absolute best of luck to all the doctors, scientists, patients, and others involved with this groundbreaking discovery. :kick:

[Voltaire99]

49. Needs to be patented by Big Pharma, made highly expensive, and kept to a select few

Otherwise, humanity will have already won.

[MilesColtrane]

53. Confusing article.

At various points it refers to this finding "destroying", "permanently disarming", "moving", "controlling", and bringing the virus to a "manageable level".

Well, which is it?

If this works, would it kill HIV, or not?

[Barack_America]

64. Infected persons would always produce the virus...

...because HIV is a retrovirus (meaning it inserts itself into the host genome--which cannot be undone).

But if infected people could produce antibodies that target this particular unmutable part of the virus, they'll be able to neutralize the virus they produce. And, obviously, if uninfected persons could have the capability to produce such an antibody upon contact with the virus (i.e. immunity) they stand a very good chance that they'll never experience a lasting infection.

That's the jist of it as I understand it.

ETA: Unfortunately, if the immunity is passive (i.e. persons must be repeatedly injected with the antibodies), this "cure" may not be economically viable.

[knixphan]

58. Kick, Kick, Hooray!

[bronxiteforever]

60. Kick & R

[quidam56]

63. THE NEXT AIDS IS MR-SA

More American's died last year from MR-SA. Bet most of you have never heard of it,called the 'super-bug', 'staph' or even 'abscess' or 'pimple'. Hospitals are spreading MR-SA, but the mega profit machines are making dough and that's acceptable just like what is considered in Tennessee and Virginia as well as a local health care system that this link is what they support and defend as acceptable health care.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/timmullins

[FourScore]

65. Wow. Just wow. n/t

[jwirr]

66. Good, a whole world is waiting for this promise of hope.

[caseycoon]

67. How WONDERFUL it would be!

I sure hope this works!
YESSSSSSS! :applause:

[dolo amber]

68. I hope this news is as good as it sounds

[ooglymoogly]

69. KR for the folks doing good in this world....we need a break

from the bad to contemplate the wonderment of this marvelous news.

[Maat]

70. They need to set up a research fund ...

and we'll all donate. People around the world would donate.

[DissedByBush]

71. The religious right's wet dream!

"Destory" HIV, get it out of the news, out of the spotlight forever!

[hedgehog]

76. What, people should keep catching HIV just to frost the religious right?

:eyes:

[DissedByBush]

118. Typo in the title n/t

[sentelle]

72. side effects?

Being a drug, I would be concerned about side effects. You know, like gardacil, that HPV innoculation. Lupus? Isn't that dangerous?

If it works, I think its bigger than we think. It would be a way to disarm a virus. Something humans have, so far, been unable to deal with very well. And its good that they are looking to prevent something rather than 'manage' it.

That's hopeful.

[Olney Blue]

77. Treatments and vaccines are always a balance of risk/benefit.

[Behind the Aegis]

79. I hold out hope.

Perhaps it will come sooner than later and I won't have to add to my list of lost friends.

[davidnc76]

80. I will be praying for a cure!

[emilyg]

84. Yes.

Have lost too many friends.

[Orrex]

82. This is among the most exciting stories I've heard in years

Recommended, and hoping that it lives up to our hopes!

[Ilsa]

85. This is incredible! And if I remember correctly, there were

some right-wing extremists who said a cure would never be found because God wanted HIV to kill the gays.

I'll be hoping this will prove them wrong.

[stlsaxman]

87. Kick and Rec #80!

unbelievably wonderful if true.

miraculous.

[Iggo]

88. Un-frickin-believeable.

Man! It's good to hear someone's working on the cure instead of the comeback.

If they kick this thing's ass, I sooo owe the medical research community a big fat apology.

This is such excellent news. I think I'm in shock.

[Mnemosyne]

90. Please let it be so. n /t

[orleans]

91. wow--how wonderful this would be if it could actually be done! n/t

[TankLV]

93. Did bush* get in contact with it or offer to find a way to help the virus?

Everything he has touched has turned to shit...

[CadenBlaker]

95. Woohoo!

I'm excited, but I am holding my breath. It seems there are breakthroughs at least once every six months and I've yet to hear of any real treatments that put HIV or AIDS in check. My brother has full blown AIDS, and he's advanced so I'd like for this treatment to begin ASAP!

[pinto]

99. My best to your brother and you. Hang in there.

:hi:

[Fearless]

97. Wow. Just wow... I just hope it's cheap. It sounds cheap so far...

:woohoo: :woohoo:

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[LiberalAndProud]

98. I Hope.

The doctors still need funding to launch human trials. In the world of HIV research, that’s often where things fall apart.

Where will the funding come from?

[and-justice-for-all]

100. Excellent News!

Someone tell Elizabeth Taylor! She would send a nice contribution.

[Ellen Forradalom]

101. Let it be so

[LaStrega]

102. Bravo! enthusiastic k&r ...

Error: You've already recommended that thread.

:)

[Doug.Goodall]

106. This looks like good news to me n/t

[ProfessorPlum]

108. I don't want to throw cold water on this

and of course I hope for a good outcome and cure for AIDS too.

But I'm not sure what this is saying, exactly. An abzyme is a protein, an antibody grown up against a transition-state mimic that is "trained" to perform some bit of chemistry. So, presumably this treatment would clip or break some part of the virus itself when it is outside of cells? That sounds great. But protein therapies are notoriously awful. They usually have to be infused through IV treatment, and often, as the body will clear out the abzymes regularly from the blood. Also, there is a major chance that the body itself will launch an immune response against the foreign protein (this is a major problem with all antibody therapies).

If the hapten, the antigen that they grow the antibodies against is non-toxic enough, it could act in the manner of a vaccine, by inciting an immune response from the bodies own antibody cells - that would be pretty sweet, and might provide lasting protection.

but the diagnosis for people who already haDve HIV might not be as sunny. The HIV genome actually integrates itself into the native DNA of macrophage and other cells in its host. It is impossible to sweep from the body - but I'm hopeful that it might be held to low levels with this treatment.

[debbierlus]

110. Thanks DU for putting this front and center and for the community for kicking it up

Glad I came across it

:)

[YOY]

111. I'll believe it when I see it..

and yes I'd like to see it.

[RedShoes]

113. with tears streaming down my face, I can only pray it's true.

[Xenotime]

114. fantastic. let's get this to those who are suffering.

[dccrossman]

115. Here's hoping

K&R

[stlsaxman]

120. kick

[hedgehog]

122. "It’s naturally produced by people, like lupus patients"

Hmmmmm, the sickle cell trait is a genetic response to malaria. If you have the trait, you aren't affected by malaria. Of course, if you have sickle cell, you've got problems.

Now consider this: black women are the group most likely to develop lupus. It makes me wonder if lupus emerged eons ago as a response to an ancestral version of today's HIV.