Man appears free of HIV after stem cell transplant

[lame54]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/11/health.hiv.stemcell/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

A 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia appears to have no detectable HIV in his blood and no symptoms after a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS, according to a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The patient underwent a stem cell transplant and since, has not tested positive for HIV in his blood.

"The patient is fine," said Dr. Gero Hutter of Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany. "Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication."

The case was first reported in November, and the new report is the first official publication of the case in a medical journal. Hutter and a team of medical professionals performed the stem cell transplant on the patient, an American living in Germany, to treat the man's leukemia, not the HIV itself.

However, the team deliberately chose a compatible donor who has a naturally occurring gene mutation that confers resistance to HIV. The mutation cripples a receptor known as CCR5, which is normally found on the surface of T cells, the type of immune system cells attacked by HIV.

[shellgame26]

1. This is major!

[Bleacher Creature]

2. I'm so glad we spent the last eight years attacking science.

We don't need no stinking cures!

[Taverner]

3. No doubt the fundies will see this as "work of the debil"

:eyes:

Thing is it hits two of their hot buttons: AIDS and Stem Cells

IN their opinion, we are fighting the will of their "gawd" by not letting the gays die off like they, and the Savage Wiener wants...and using BABY BLOOD TO DO IT!!!!

Lets hope the GOP never controls congress again, so when this comes up for FDA trials it doesn't get labelled "of no medial importance" alongside Heroin and Cocaine.

[Common Sense Party]

4. Baby blood?

Not in this case.

[Taverner]

6. Yes I know this, you know this, but the Fundies won't believe it

To them ALL Stem Cell research is evil

You probably think I'm kidding - check them over at Rapture Ready and you'll see exactly what I mean

[Igel]

13. Perhaps some.

Most that I knew tout the line that adult (and other) stem cells are as good as--and safer--than HESCs. So why the emphasis on HESCs? They have a variety of answers among them, few adopting more than one answer.

AIDS they consider bad, but either deserved or undeserved, depending on the person involved. A cure for AIDS isn't a bad thing, in other words, because there's a good use for it.

This won't come up for federal trials, at least not in its current form.

[Taverner]

14. Ahhhh are you sure you aren't talking about the Evangies?

The Evangies, or Evangelicals, are a notch or two up on the rationality scale. They use the code amongst each other that they believe the bible is the inspired not literal word of god. Think Rick Warren

The Fundies, on the other hand, go for the bible being the literal word of God, which means they believe in all the parts about stoning gays, but none of the dietary restrictions. Think Tim LaHaye

[eilen]

5. This is so fantastic. Think of the people who we can cure

from deadly viruses.

[Rob H.]

7. The donor may be descended from someone

who survived the Black Plague. Seriously! There was a fascinating documentary on PBS last year about people who survived the outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe and one of the people they interviewed was a man who could trace his ancestry back that far. Apparently his ancestors' resistance to the plague has given him immunity to HIV.

His interview was featured in the Secrets of the Dead episode "Mystery of the Black Death."

[no limit]

8. This is awesome but still needs lots of work. 1 in 3 people die as a result of this transplant

so this is by no means a miracle cure.

[NashVegas]

9. By Any Chance, Did These Stem Cells Come From African Prostitutes, And If So ...

How rich will the patent-holder become while she and others who made this possible live in squalor?

Agnes Munyiva has never thought of herself as a lucky woman. Desperately poor, she works as a prostitute out of her home, a tiny tin-roofed hut on the outskirts of Nairobi. To feed her family of five she entertains as many as 10 clients a day on her children's bed, charging the going rate of 25 cents a trick. Her latest boyfriend just landed in jail, and her kids -- forced to play outside in the mud while their mama "has a guest" -- often go hungry on a skimpy diet of corn mash.

Yet in a way, Munyiva is a fortunate woman -- extraordinarily fortunate to be free of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Since the disease emerged in Nairobi in the early 1980s, the sexually transmitted virus has infected 90% of the city's lower-class prostitutes; but somehow Munyiva, 42, has avoided the scourge during her 13 years in that grim line of work. "Perhaps God knows that if he takes me away, my children would suffer," she says.

Munyiva is one of a remarkable group of 25 Nairobi prostitutes who are the subjects of intensive scientific study. The fact that they have no symptoms of AIDS is not so amazing, since HIV can lie dormant in the body for many years before it begins its deadly work. What is surprising is that the virus cannot be found in these women at all; it apparently cannot establish itself in their cells.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979763,00.html

http://www.ris.org.in/Nairobi_Case.pdf


I don't want to pee on anyone's parade, but if this turns out to be the deciding factor in an HIV/AIDS cure, these women are owed.

[no limit]

11. According to the article these stem cells came from a European donor. But interesting read

[NashVegas]

15. Thanks for the Info

From what I could glean, the CCR5 appeared to be a different source, but ya never know ...

[robinlynne]

10. fantastic!

[11 Bravo]

12. I wonder how many died so Bush could have a steady supply of "Snowflake Baby" photo ops.

I will always despise that jug-eared little prick.