Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In 'Berlin Patient'
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Posted from hxxp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/hiv-cure-berlin-patient_n_796521.html
On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."
Brown's case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.
Last week, Time named another AIDS-related discovery to its list of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Recent studies show that healthy individuals who take antiretrovirals, medicine commonly prescribed for treating HIV, can reduce their risk of contracting the disease by up to 73 percent.
While these developments by no means prove a cure for the virus has been found, they can certainly provide hope for the more than 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Alongside such findings, global efforts to combat the epidemic have accelerated as of late, with new initiatives emerging in the Philippines and South Africa this week.
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I'm guessing that's a huge breakthrough… Now all they have to do is try the same procedure on different patients and double check that It in fact that stem cell transplant could cure that virus and PRESTO! Millions of people would be in heaven but at the same time, those modified engineered cells will probably cost a fortune for they would have to be (I believe) made for each individual as no human reacts the same or has the same type of virus with the same level of mutation, right?
Oh well, just hoping they could find the cure for HIV and they could save people from dying due to the effects that virus has on humans... =(
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Millions of people would be in heaven but at the same time, those modified engineered cells will probably cost a fortune for they would have to be (I believe) made for each individual as no human reacts the same or has the same type of virus with the same level of mutation, right?
Sadly, that is the reality. There are two different main "types" (or strains as it were) of HIV. Type 1 is more common in gay men, which originated in North America. Type 2 on the other hand is more common to heterosexuals or inter-Venus drug users, which originated in Africa. The other down side is that even in a case where the same strain is passed from one person to another, it can mutate when it reaches the new host body, largely due to the way that it replicates its DNA in order to infuse with the CD4 cells. The problem there lies that such mutations can cause a resistance to certain treatments. Logically, this would suggest that it could also mutate to develop a resistance to this "treatment" as it were.
Don't get me wrong though, that being said, it is still possible to find a cure. The cure on the other hand due to the nature of the virus can be rather complicated all unto itself.
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