HIV Used for Good
- Thread starter John Picard
- Start date
yeah... wow doesn't even BEGIN to cover it.
I have to ask the uneducated question, though... can any of our resident experts explain in relatively simple terms why it is that we can render HIV inert in a lab but not once someone's already infected (i.e. cure the Virus)?
I have to ask the uneducated question, though... can any of our resident experts explain in relatively simple terms why it is that we can render HIV inert in a lab but not once someone's already infected (i.e. cure the Virus)?
In simplest terms, a virus in vitro can be genetically altered, then grown in the lab under careful conditions, creating an essentially sterile strain that cannot infect in vivo. In HIV's case, it is likely that the altered strain of the virus lacks gp120, a key glycoprotein which the virus uses to latch onto and infect CD4-positive T-lymphocytes. (I haven't read the OP's article to see if that's what they did, so I'll need to check.)
In vivo, i.e. once a given virulent strain of the (unaltered) virus is already in the blood, there are millions of copies of that virus particle around, in different stages of replication, so trying to alter all of them is difficult. However, treatments can target the specific antigens which play a role in the virus's propagation, using vaccines or antiviral medications.
In the case of vaccines, they help in the protection against infection by priming the body, teaching it to recognise and fight any future infection - and it will only work against infections for which the exact specific antigens are known (e.g. why there wasn't a 2008-9 Swine Flu vaccine until much later), as anything else will lead to a long and hard slog (as per anyone getting a primary infection) which can, in some conditions, be deadly. In an interesting field, HIV vaccines which lead to production of antibodies acting against gp120 have been researched heavily.
If an infection is already in place, antiviral drugs are required. These are tablets or infusions which act on key components of the virus, neutralising them while inside the body. In HIV's case, there is antiretroviral therapy which can either target the virus's protease enzyme required for replication (HIV protease inhibitors), or inhibit reverse transcriptase by either mimicking the nucleic acid sequences and being incorporated into the HIV code, terminating its further replication (nucleoside- or nucleotide-analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors) or attacking the enzyme itself (non-nucleoside-analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors). In HIV's highly active antiretroviral therapy, a combination of these drugs (usually two RTIs and a HPI) is used at the earliest opportunity.
For some viruses, freshly-prepared immunoglobulin can be given itself as an infusion to stop any immediate infection happening at the time - it's one of the treatments given to health care workers who sustain needlestick injuries from contaminated needles, in order to treat acute hepatitis B virus inoculation.
^^ FYI -- there is but a small portion of the human population who are HIV immune, meaning they have a natural immunity to the virus. The key is finding that and being able to produce it for everyone.
Yes, I've heard about that too. They seem to be able to resist HIV's ability to bind and penetrate the affected lymphocytes, I think due to some interesting genetic mutation in the CD4 molecule. It's a fascinating field of research.
