Gene level HIV vaccine in development

[Texashiker]

Instead of your typical vaccine that causes the body to produce antibodies, why not inject the person with genes that produce antibodies?

Scientist hope this could lead to a vaccine for HIV.

http://www.nature.com/news/gene-therapy-can-protect-against-hiv-1.9516

Studies in mice show antibodies are produced for more then a year after injection.

We know that certain groups of people are more resistant to diseases then other groups. So why not take the genes from group A and inject them into group B? Thus causing group B to produce natural resistance on the gene level.

Applications are being filed with the US government so human trials can start.

There has been talk of replacing bone marrow in HIV patients to make them resistant to HIV. Maybe something like this would work better then the bone marrow?

And no, this is not an anti-vaccine thread.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Instead of your typical vaccine that causes the body to produce antibodies, why not inject the person with genes that produce antibodies?

Scientist hope this could lead to a vaccine for HIV.

http://www.nature.com/news/gene-therapy-can-protect-against-hiv-1.9516

Studies in mice show antibodies are produced for more then a year after injection.

We know that certain groups of people are more resistant to diseases then other groups. So why not take the genes from group A and inject them into group B? Thus causing group B to produce natural resistance on the gene level.

Applications are being filed with the US government so human trials can start.

There has been talk of replacing bone marrow in HIV patients to make them resistant to HIV. Maybe something like this would work better then the bone marrow?

And no, this is not an anti-vaccine thread.

A vaccine based on a using a virus to alter DNA, wasn't this the premise of I am Legend?

 

[Genx87]

A vaccine based on a using a virus to alter DNA, wasn't this the premise of I am Legend?

I believe they used a virus to kill\prevent cancer in "I am legend". Then turn people into raving zombies.

 

[Anarchist420]

Blood type determines how resistant you are to HIV. That actually makes a lot of sense due to the fact that AIDS came from some people eating bushmeat (95% of the people in the world have the RhD antigen so 95% of the people in the world are apes. My grandmother said that my dad didn't. I don't know what my mother is).

Also, there is some mutation on the CCR gene IIRC that makes some people (particularly people from Northern Europe, although there may or may not be other groups that have the gene also) more resistant to HIV.

Finally, some mtDNA haplotypes result in slower progression of HIV than others.

 

[WelshBloke]

...(95% of the people in the world have the RhD antigen so 95% of the people in the world are apes. My grandmother said that my dad didn't. I don't know what my mother is)...

 

[Brainonska511]

There has been talk of replacing bone marrow in HIV patients to make them resistant to HIV. Maybe something like this would work better then the bone marrow?

The bone marrow thing was a one-time case. A guy with HIV and leukemia needed a marrow transplant after the cancer treatment. They also happened to find a match that was missing the gene for expressing the appropriate receptor that HIV would require to enter T-cells. It also is not a cure, as the virus can hide in other parts of the body - but the last I read, the individual remains asymptomatic with no signs of HIV in his blood since the operation.

Bone marrow transplants are not very safe, so they would never be considered a reasonable treatment for HIV. Plus, finding a match + the genetic mutation would be very difficult.

Anarchist420 - the boy who knows nothing about everything.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Blood type determines how resistant you are to HIV. That actually makes a lot of sense due to the fact that AIDS came from some people eating bushmeat (95% of the people in the world have the RhD antigen so 95% of the people in the world are apes. My grandmother said that my dad didn't. I don't know what my mother is).

Also, there is some mutation on the CCR gene IIRC that makes some people (particularly people from Northern Europe, although there may or may not be other groups that have the gene also) more resistant to HIV.

Finally, some mtDNA haplotypes result in slower progression of HIV than others.

WTF you babbling about?

There has been talk of replacing bone marrow in HIV patients to make them resistant to HIV. Maybe something like this would work better then the bone marrow?

The thing with bone marrow transplants is that they are dangerous. With the way antiretroviral therapy has developed, they are far more dangerous than living with HIV. There's the complete destruction of the immune system, which also causes damage to your testicles, hair, and just about every mucous membrane in the body; then there's the convalescence time while the donor marrow cells build up the body's leucocyte population, which can take months, during which you're far, far more susceptible to the hundreds of infections that people normally suffer from and carry around, but you're also susceptible to the hundreds of other infections that most people don't have to worry about due to them having an immune system - PCP, HHV1, HHV2, EBV, CMV, and all the other herpesviruses, candidiasis, toxoplasmosis, etc. And then for the rest of your life there's the ever-present threat of graft-versus host, which most likely means you have to take drugs (immunosuppressants) for the rest of your life anyway, and which if not managed well will cause out and out rejection of your entire body which in the best case is an expensive and very uncomfortable experience, and in the worst case will cause you to die a long, very painful death. There are also the logistics of finding a compatible donor, which is rare anyway, and screening for the CCR5 delta-32 mutation, which makes a compatible donor even rarer, and then getting them to consent to undergoing an uncomfortable and inconvenient procedure to cure you of a condition that has a better quality and expectancy of life than the transplant itself.

Or you could just take the HIV drugs and live a reasonably normal life.

 

[Vic Vega]

Here we go...

 

[Ninjahedge]

I believe they used a virus to kill\prevent cancer in "I am legend". Then turn people into raving zombies.

Did they get cancer?

 

[DrPizza]

Re: the bone marrow replacement - unless I'm mistaken, that's really not a viable option because the risks of the treatment are far worse than having a chronic, but manageable disease.

 

[Genx87]

Did they get cancer?

No, just a brain eating disease that reduced them to screaming shells of their former selves. It also caused their hair to fall out. I could see the commercial for it right now.

"X-Cancer prevents cancer but side effects can include vomiting, dizzyness, brain rotting, screaming, hair loss, super human strength, break down in society, severe reaction to sunlight, high pulse rate, and if you are one of the lucky ones, death."

 

[Nebor]

I believe they used a virus to kill\prevent cancer in "I am legend". Then turn people into raving zombies.

IIRC the cancer rate among the nocturnal costars of I Am Legend suffered from an astoundingly low cancer rate.

 

[shira]

Someone help me out here:

Two of the induced antibodies - b12 and VRC01 - provided the "humanized" mice with complete protection from infection over a period of a year. But - presumably - the mice were continually challenged with only a small number of HIV genotypes. Since the AIDs virus mutates very rapidly and these antibodies cannot possibly protect against ALL current and future HIV mutations, I'm guessing that this therapy would rapidly lose effectiveness over the long term in the real world. It would be just like the situation of a single anti-viral drug

Am I missing something here?

 

[shira]

No, just a brain eating disease that reduced them to screaming shells of their former selves. It also caused their hair to fall out. I could see the commercial for it right now.

"X-Cancer prevents cancer but side effects can include vomiting, dizzyness, brain rotting, screaming, hair loss, super human strength, break down in society, severe reaction to sunlight, high pulse rate, and if you are one of the lucky ones, death."

How come we never see female side effects like "bigger, fuller, firmer boobs" and "insatiable sexual appetite?"

 

[CottonRabbit]

Blood type determines how resistant you are to HIV. That actually makes a lot of sense due to the fact that AIDS came from some people eating bushmeat (95% of the people in the world have the RhD antigen so 95% of the people in the world are apes. My grandmother said that my dad didn't. I don't know what my mother is).

Also, there is some mutation on the CCR gene IIRC that makes some people (particularly people from Northern Europe, although there may or may not be other groups that have the gene also) more resistant to HIV.

Finally, some mtDNA haplotypes result in slower progression of HIV than others.

Of course, plasma Rh factor, which can constitutively activated by LPL mediated breakdown of bushmeat VLCFA's through a PIP3 initiated CAMP esterase cascade would serve as the natural target for competitive inhibition of LTR activating promoter domain on the HIV viral envelope which would allow for spontaneous integration into CDC4+ BCR-ABL presenting domains! It also makes sense that certain mtDNA CNV's encode for trans-activated kinases that enable the Pol IV,V sRNA mediated rescue of abandoned terminal repeat sequences for HIV resistance. Brilliant, please report to the CDC!

 

[Ninjahedge]

No, just a [side effect].

"X-Cancer prevents cancer but side effects can include vomiting, dizzyness, brain rotting, screaming, hair loss, super human strength, break down in society, severe reaction to sunlight, high pulse rate, and if you are one of the lucky ones, death."

Then it worked!!!


Seriously though? 99.99% of that stuff i spure sci-fi. You try messing with the gene code enough, you usually end up dying. People think that Genetic Engineering is Playing God and the like, but in most cases it is no more different than animal husbandry.

How do you think we got so many frigging "pure" dog breeds from the god damned wolves?