Possible cure for AIDS?

Ok, I'm sorry to tell you all, but the whole "guy with leukemia gets bone marrow transplant, is cured of his HIV" thing is pretty old news, and it will never work on a large scale because:

1) This gene is rare, and bone marrow donors with this gene are even rarer. You'd have to wait for a transplant that not only has this gene, but is a match for you... you'll probably die of AIDS faster than you find someone.

2) Bone marrow transplants are extremely risky procedures (10% chance of death, even greater chance of complications) and is only used as a last resort (like if you're in the late stages of leukemia).

Nothing to get excited about here, folks. That one guy was literally just a fluke, nothing more.

Now stem cells, that might be promising, but I haven't seen any studies about that yet.

edited 19th May '11 6:06:44 PM by zoulza

Couldn't the first one be fixed with genetic engineering? It might not work for anyone infected, but it would immunize future generations.

There's been talk of cloning stem cells and organs, can we clone bone marrow?

Hm, I'm not sure. It's been a long ass time since biology, I want to say bone marrow isn't set up like a normal organ and is more more of a goo than an actual organ. On one hand, that would make it easier to copy since you don't have to worry about how the cells are arranged as much, on the other, it's much harder to find active parts to experiment with.

The CCR 5-delta32 mutation apparently has a negative effect on T cell function, which explains why it isn't universal in the first place (also apparently reduces resistance to West Nile virus), but AIDS reduces T cell function rather a lot more, so this sounds effective . . .

Also, turns out researchers started a clinical trial of taking cells out of the body, modifying them so they carry the delta-32 mutation and putting them back in . . . in 2009. Let's hope it works and is proven safe (or at least safer than having AIDS).

"Human genetic modification" is currently called "gene therapy", and mostly used to treat diseases resulting from single-gene mutations, but it's definitely a thing that happens. It basically consists of what I described above but with other sorts of cells and mutations.

Is it possible to make a cell cultivation of bone marrow?

Nice, and this method should be pretty refine-able into a cheap process in the coming years. Good news in general.

Don't we have some doctors here? Oh, no wait, they've got shit to do, why would they spend time here?

You've got a person here who's the friend of several med students.

edited 20th May '11 2:36:39 AM by Usht

Guess it'll have to do.

QUICKLY DEBOSS, FOR SCIENCE!

I assume you're proposing dissection. For Science!!

Or possibly some sort of explosion.

edited 20th May '11 2:38:47 AM by Deboss

Sure, long as I get to perform the exploding and the dissection involved high velocity ammunition.