Man becomes resistant to HIV?

[Whaspe]

This looks really promising BBC news link

If they can find out how his immune system effectively fought the virus we may have hope for a cure sooner than later. What's also nice in this situation is that he is willing to offer assistance and have medical tests done on him.

 

[slash196]

Several million US citizens are IMMUNE to AIDS. Take that as you will, but it's not a very well known fact, so I thought I'd put it out there, my point being that this man isn't exactly unique in his resistance to the virus.

EDIT: Also, has anyone considered that the first test may have been a false positive?

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: slash196
Also, has anyone considered that the first test may have been a false positive?

I'm sure the first blood sample is still available and has been re-tested. Otherwise, this case would not be cited as providing "conclusive evidence" of someone clearing their body of the HIV virus.

 

[Whaspe]

Originally posted by: slash196
Several million US citizens are IMMUNE to AIDS. Take that as you will, but it's not a very well known fact, so I thought I'd put it out there, my point being that this man isn't exactly unique in his resistance to the virus.

EDIT: Also, has anyone considered that the first test may have been a false positive?

The interesting thing in this case is that he was diagnosed as being postive and then apparently cured himself. That's different from not getting the disease. HIV is very effective at evading the immune responses of it's host so understanding how this guy was able to cure himself will beneficial to those who are not immune and have the virus.
As far as him being false-positive, I would think that at this stage of the game something like that would be ruled out. As to what the percentage is for people being tolded they are HIV positive when they actually aren't, I'd imagine that to be a pretty insignificant number.

 

[KidViciou$]

let's hope the pharmaceutical companies don't have him offed!

 

[Whaspe]

Originally posted by: KidViciou$
let's hope the pharmaceutical companies don't have him offed!

If you're playing the stock market and holding positions in one of them this may be a good thing........

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: Whaspe
This looks really promising BBC news link

If they can find out how his immune system effectively fought the virus we may have hope for a cure sooner than later. What's also nice in this situation is that he is willing to offer assistance and have medical tests done on him.

the people that lived through the black plauge 800 years ago did so because they had a genetic mutation that protected them. One of the forms of this mutation also protects from HIV.

 

[dmcowen674]

It's a Darwin thing, either adapt or die.

But of course the religious don't believe in Darwin or science.

They place all their eggs on faith.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
It's a Darwin thing, either adapt or die.

But of course the religious don't believe in Darwin or science.

They place all their eggs on faith.

Maybe the guy prayed really hard?

 

[Moonbeam]

Clearly he is a liberal.

 

[zephyrprime]

A sizeable percentage of the population is immune to aids for genetic reasons. This was first discovered while studying a group of African prostitutes that never succumb to aids. I wouldn't put too much hope on this guy leading to a cure for aids. His immunity probably can't be reproduced in a drug but would require wholesale genetic engineering of people to make them immune like this guy.

 

[mOeeOm]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
It's a Darwin thing, either adapt or die.

But of course the religious don't believe in Darwin or science.

They place all their eggs on faith.

Maybe Christians -_- don't group us all.

 

[Agnostos Insania]

I'm resistant to all STDs, as I've never had sex and god only knows if I ever will.

Originally posted by: mOeeOm
Maybe Christians -_- don't group us all.

Other religions accept science and the ways that it invalidates the sacred texts? That's news to me.

 

[maluckey]

The odd thing is that there are scientists and researchers testing to see if HIV is actually a retrovirus. If so, it would fit the story of some people going into remission after testing positive.

Perhaaps it is like shingles and HPV. Millions have them but don't even know or care. They certainly notice it when their immune system gets weak and they are attacked by these normall dormant viruses.

 

[Whaspe]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
A sizeable percentage of the population is immune to aids for genetic reasons. This was first discovered while studying a group of African prostitutes that never succumb to aids. I wouldn't put too much hope on this guy leading to a cure for aids. His immunity probably can't be reproduced in a drug but would require wholesale genetic engineering of people to make them immune like this guy.

This is true, I beleive it's a mutation in the CCR5 receptor for European populations, it must be something similar for the African prostitutes. The difference I think for this case is that they wouldn't test postive for the infection while this guy clearly did and now "cured." Therefore, they can use his antibodies to discover which part of the virus they are targeting and then use this to help others. This technique has already been used to tell us what we some far know about HIV infection. It's so dangerous because it shields it's sensitive areas with mutable coat proteins. As it stands this is very important for finding a cure.

 

[Whaspe]

Originally posted by: maluckey
The odd thing is that there are scientists and researchers testing to see if HIV is actually a retrovirus. If so, it would fit the story of some people going into remission after testing positive.

Perhaaps it is like shingles and HPV. Millions have them but don't even know or care. They certainly notice it when their immune system gets weak and they are attacked by these normall dormant viruses.

This has already been proven, that's why when you become HIV positive you don't have AIDS. It can take 10 years or more from the time you become HIV positive to when you have autoimmune deficiencies. HIV targets your immune cells and can live there happily until your body undergoes a stress which signals for it to enter it's infectious stage summarily wiping out your immune system.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
It's a Darwin thing, either adapt or die.

But of course the religious don't believe in Darwin or science.

They place all their eggs on faith.

More needless bashing of religion. I'm not religious, but I still respect people's beliefs. Maybe you should learn to respect them too.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: alent1234

Originally posted by: Whaspe
This looks really promising BBC news link

If they can find out how his immune system effectively fought the virus we may have hope for a cure sooner than later. What's also nice in this situation is that he is willing to offer assistance and have medical tests done on him.

the people that lived through the black plauge 800 years ago did so because they had a genetic mutation that protected them. One of the forms of this mutation also protects from HIV.

Which is why there are highly levels of immunity to HIV in European than African citizens.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: Whaspe

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
A sizeable percentage of the population is immune to aids for genetic reasons. This was first discovered while studying a group of African prostitutes that never succumb to aids. I wouldn't put too much hope on this guy leading to a cure for aids. His immunity probably can't be reproduced in a drug but would require wholesale genetic engineering of people to make them immune like this guy.

This is true, I beleive it's a mutation in the CCR5 receptor for European populations, it must be something similar for the African prostitutes. The difference I think for this case is that they wouldn't test postive for the infection while this guy clearly did and now "cured." Therefore, they can use his antibodies to discover which part of the virus they are targeting and then use this to help others. This technique has already been used to tell us what we some far know about HIV infection. It's so dangerous because it shields it's sensitive areas with mutable coat proteins. As it stands this is very important for finding a cure.

With the gene that confers immunity or resistance to HIV/ Bubonic plague, you can have either one or two copies of the gene. People with two copies of the gene don't seem to get HIV infections even when they are exposed to the virus on many occasions. People with one copy of the gene may contract the virus, but they seem to be able to cope with the infection more easily than people without the gene (the disease doesn't progress rapidly in their body, it seems to remain under control).