French cure HIV?

[red ufo]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/29/MNGQ4A35T11.DTL&type=printable

French researchers reported Sunday that an AIDS vaccine designed to treat the disease, rather than prevent it, has scored an initial success by suppressing the virus for up to a year among a small group of patients who tried it.

Although the technique is cumbersome and costly, the experiment published in an online version of the British journal Nature Medicine is being touted as "the first demonstration of an efficient therapeutic vaccine against AIDS."

The vaccine was tested in Brazil on 18 volunteers who were already infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but who were not yet taking any antiviral drugs. After four months, the level of HIV in their bloodstreams had been reduced an average of 80 percent.

By the end of one year, eight patients in the group had maintained a 90 percent reduction in virus particles in their bloodstream. Four of those patients had virus levels so low that they were comparable to so-called "long- term non-progressors," a rare cohort of people infected with HIV who never seem to get sick.

Unlike a conventional vaccine, this one cannot block infection from occurring. However, if the French technique could be perfected, it has the potential to keep some HIV-infected patients healthy without their having to take the three-drug "cocktails" of toxic antiviral drugs.

Instead, a series of injections, perhaps once a year, would keep their chronic infections in check.

The lead investigators in the French study are Drs. Jean-Marie Andrieu and Wei Lu of the Institute of Research for Vaccines and Immunotherapies for Cancer and AIDS, in Paris.

In an interview, Andrieu estimated that the cost of the annual therapy could be $4,000 to $8,000, less than a year's course of antiviral drugs. He said the only side effect of the therapy was a swelling of the lymph nodes, which caused no pain. The swelling was, in fact, an indicator that the vaccine was marshalling the body's immune system properly to ward off the AIDS virus.

No new patients have been enrolled in the experiment, but Andrieu said future research will attempt to understand "why it works in some people, and not in others.''

Although the experiment falls short of a breakthrough against AIDS, it represents a rare piece of good news in the field of vaccine research, which has been marked in recent years by a string of setbacks.

UCSF doctor sees cause for hope

"This is just a preliminary study, but it is encouraging,'' said virologist Dr. Jay Levy of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute. Levy did not participate in the research but is familiar with its findings.

Further studies are needed, Levy said, to learn exactly why the vaccine worked better than other, similar versions. A critically important step would be to determine whether the vaccine also reduced the amount of virus in sexual fluids. If it did so, a population of HIV infected individuals treated with the therapeutic vaccine would be less likely to transmit the virus to others. "The purpose of a real vaccine is to protect a population. This would have that advantage,'' Levy said.

At present, however, the vaccine is difficult to produce, and impractical to deliver to large numbers of people. This therapeutic vaccine is essentially custom-made for each patient who takes it.

To make a dose of vaccine, the French doctors extract from each HIV- infected patient a sample of dendritic cells -- starfish-shaped white blood cells that play a special role in the human immune system. They also take a sample of the virus from the infected blood of each patient.

In the laboratory, they separately grow uninfected dendritic cells and a batch of the virus itself. The virus is eventually killed and mixed in with the dendritic cells, whose special function then becomes vital.

The dendritic cells consume the virus, breaking it into pieces and displaying the parts on their surfaces like grisly trophies.

Doctors then inject the dendritic cells back into each patient.

Lymph nodes receive the message

Inside the body, the dendritic cells migrate to the lymph nodes, carrying their message of an invading microbe to resting banks of "killer" white blood cells. The broken bits of HIV on the dendritic cell's surface help to program these killer cells to recognize the virus -- like bloodhounds given a scent to chase. Once activated, they will seek out and destroy any cell in the human body that is infected by HIV.

It is a system of "cellular immunity" that the body routinely uses to protect itself. The AIDS virus, for reasons not fully understood, has managed to hijack the process. Dendritic cells are, in fact, one of the favored targets of living HIV, and once it ferries HIV to the lymph nodes, it then infects other white blood cells, making more copies of itself, and eventually depleting the cells.

The French laboratory intervention, by mixing dendritic cells outside the body with killed HIV, seems to restore their proper defensive role when they are returned to the body.

It is this focus on dendritic cells, and the use of a whole, killed virus, that distinguishes the French effort from other attempts to make a therapeutic vaccine.

Any optimism about the French experiment must be tempered with caution. The history of AIDS vaccine research is littered with failure. An attempt by British and Kenyan scientists to use this concept of cellular immunity to make a preventive vaccine was abandoned in August after a trial in Nairobi showed it did not stir up a strong enough response to protect against HIV.

Laboratory experiments with a similar vaccine that showed great promise in monkeys have slowed after further studies showed the virus was able to mutate into a vaccine-resistant strain.

[Don 944 LA]

anything that moves us toward the days of yesteryear where it was " F#*K everything " is a good thing...

[red ufo]

You could hear a pin drop from the neocons. Godforbid the France does something great. This goes against the 'hate the french, freedom fries propaganda'.

[pwd72s]

I'm no scientist...but as far as I know, no "cure" has been found for virus. Bacteria can be killed with antibiotics. Virus is a totally different animal, and should the French have come up with a breakthrough? This is BIG NEWS. Treatments have been found to slow down the progression of a virus...but never a "cure". Those with scientific backgrounds are welcome to correct me...Boy, would I ever welcome a virus "cure". Even if it came from Bin Laden... Red UFaHole, does everything have to be political to you? My wife has M.S. Virus is the suspected cause...this news gives hope. But hopes have been dashed before.

[bryanthompson]

Originally posted by red ufo
You could hear a pin drop from the neocons. Godforbid the France does something great. This goes against the 'hate the french, freedom fries propaganda'.

Wow, you let a whole 2.5 hours go by before you said that. Maybe if you let it go for like, a day, you could get away with saying that.

If the french did come up with it, heck that's great. Any advancement in this area is awesome.

I'm just suprised the french didn't surrender to AIDS. (that's what you wanted to hear, right? )

[red ufo]

Originally posted by pwd72s
I'm no scientist...but as far as I know, no "cure" has been found for virus. Bacteria can be killed with antibiotics. Virus is a totally different animal, and should the French have come up with a breakthrough? This is BIG NEWS. Treatments have been found to slow down the progression of a virus...but never a "cure". Those with scientific backgrounds are welcome to correct me...Boy, would I ever welcome a virus "cure". Even if it came from Bin Laden... Red UFaHole, does everything have to be political to you? My wife has M.S. Virus is the suspected cause...this news gives hope. But hopes have been dashed before.

So if you have or get HIV then you won't be interested since its not a Cure?

Its like if New Zealand cures cancer. Not a neocon here could be man enuff to say a good thing about them. Instead marginalize, defame, forget.

You people that only see the bad side will develop a tumor from the stress someday. You might need French weed or there latest cure to save your butt.

{Pinkie}

[fintstone]

Sounds like progress, but I am betting on Seattle based Targeted Genetics (TGEN) to develop the first viable vaccine.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=59916

[fintstone]

Originally posted by fintstone
Sounds like progress, but I am betting on Seattle based Targeted Genetics (TGEN) to develop the first viable vaccine.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=59916

They are also in development of a treatment for MS.

[pwd72s]

Red, I'll try one more time...gaining respect for the patience of teachers as I do so. MS and HIV...both have suspected VIRUS root causes. Both MSers and those with HIV welcome disease delaying treatments. But sometimes those "treatments" are worse punishment for the victims than the disease itself. You used the word "cure", not I....This long time conservative would welcome a CURE for any disease previously considered to be incurable.

[RallyJon]

Godforbid the France does something great.

Wow. You seriously need to lighten up. Do you really believe the world is that black and white?

The France makes great wine. The France cuisine is terrific. There's a big difference between the good things that the France do and those areas where the France is a bit out of their depth. Like that whole security council thing.

Great wine. Really. Can't give them enough credit...

[fintstone]

And give them credit...they surrender better than anyone.

[Moses]

Originally posted by red ufo
You could hear a pin drop from the neocons. Godforbid the France does something great. This goes against the 'hate the french, freedom fries propaganda'.

First, it is not a vaccine. "Vaccine" gets better press when you are campaigning for a Nobel prize. It looks to be a promising type of immunotherapy. The main advantage may be economic.

Someday a real vaccine will be invented (I hope). Hard to know. Retroviruses are tricky indeed.

[red ufo]

Originally posted by fintstone
And give them credit...they surrender better than anyone.

That's where you lost the arguement.

[red ufo]

Originally posted by Moses
First, it is not a vaccine. "Vaccine" gets better press when you are campaigning for a Nobel prize. It looks to be a promising type of immunotherapy. The main advantage may be economic.

Someday a real vaccine will be invented (I hope). Hard to know. Retroviruses are tricky indeed.

Marginalize, defame, forget.

I guess we got to wait for some US corp to make it until its legit and on NASDAQ for trading to make money off them victims too! Then its too legit to quit but the French can't make jack sh$t! Huh?

[bryanthompson]

Well, since you've proven that you can't handle anyone debating the issue, it looks like you're as useless as 952.

[red ufo]

Originally posted by bryanthompson
Well, since you've proven that you can't handle anyone debating the issue, it looks like you're as useless as 952.

I'd expect that type of dribble from an Man Coulter fanatic.

[island911]

Preliminary study shows promise in suppressing virus
....
Although the experiment falls short of a breakthrough against AIDS, it represents a rare piece of good news
. . ..
Any optimism about the French experiment must be tempered with caution. The history of AIDS vaccine research is littered with failure. ..

. . .so of your Q; French cure HIV? I would say; No.


But there is a lot of money in selling hope.


geeze . . .now i' need to change my sig to :Cynical!? who me?

[RickM]

AIDS has quite a bit of research going on....a good thing.

This is what we really have to worry about:

"Hong Kong - Up to 100-million people could die in weeks if a bird flu pandemic broke out, a senior World Health Organisation (WHO) official has warned while urging countries to make urgent preparations to mitigate its spread"

http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20041130051751967C809147

[red ufo]

Originally posted by island911
. . .so of your Q; French cure HIV? I would say; No.


But there is a lot of money in selling hope.


geeze . . .now i' need to change my sig to :Cynical!? who me?

Sort of like Iraq huh?

Send everybody's kid except the Bush daughters to war until a happy ending magically happens and they except uber Walmarts and slave labor jobs via US corporations.

I'll bet we all pay for blanket health care for all Iraqis and you (R) will still argue the US don't deserve it because XYZ race is on welfare.


Maybe this is not a cure, but it seems to stop HIV from growing and eventually turning into AIDS.

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by RallyJon
Great wine. Really. Can't give them enough credit...

Well, technically, you can't give California enough credit. Around the end of the 19th century, the French wine vineyards were smitten with an obscure wine disease. Much like the Irish Potato Famine, all of their grapes were susceptible to the same disease, which spread rapidly, so the French wine industry was crippled. They found relief from the California vineyards, where wine-types had developed strains of grapes that were resistant to their particular disease. Today, virtually all French grapes are descended, ironically, from California-grown grapes.

That probably explains why Napa Valley wines have been beating French wines for the last few years.

Back on topic, this treatment sounds like it has promise; has anyone been able to find a second source of the news?

Dan