Researchers Have Eliminated HIV In Mice For the First Time (usatoday.com) 64
pgmrdlm shares a report from USA Today: Researchers say they've successfully eliminated HIV from the DNA of infected mice for the first time, bringing them one step closer to curing the virus in humans. Scientists from Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center were able to eliminate the virus using a combination of gene-editing technology and a slow-release antiviral drug, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.
Researchers used a new form of ART called LASER ART on 23 "humanized mice," animals genetically modified to bear similarities to the human immune response. They were able to control the release and metabolism of the drug which allowed it to suppress virus replication for longer period of time. The team then excised the remaining integrated HIV genome using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9 which allows scientists to operate on DNA to add or disable certain genes. Study author Howard Gendelman said its unclear how long it will take before clinical trials can begin noting that more research needs to be done into the potential of toxicity of gene modifying therapy and how to scale up the dose for humans.
Researchers used a new form of ART called LASER ART on 23 "humanized mice," animals genetically modified to bear similarities to the human immune response. They were able to control the release and metabolism of the drug which allowed it to suppress virus replication for longer period of time. The team then excised the remaining integrated HIV genome using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9 which allows scientists to operate on DNA to add or disable certain genes. Study author Howard Gendelman said its unclear how long it will take before clinical trials can begin noting that more research needs to be done into the potential of toxicity of gene modifying therapy and how to scale up the dose for humans.
MICKEY SAYS THANK YOU (Score:2, Insightful)
MICKEY SAYS THANK YOU
DNA? (Score:3)
...successfully eliminated HIV from the DNA of infected mice...
I thought HIV was a virus? How does it get into your DNA?
nitpicking details: retro virus (Score:2)
It's a virus, it is literally designed to invade your body's cells and reproduce within your DNA.
Only the "retroviruses" will reproduce "within your DNA" (retroviruses [wikipedia.org] are the subtype incorporates into the hosts' genome DNA as part of their cycles (after optionally retranscribing their RNA back into DNA if they are not DNA to begin with) like HIV does).
There are tons of other different strategies (e.g.: influenza does pure RNA-to-RNA copies and never touches the hosts' DNA).
Also, to even further nitpick on stupidly small details:
unless your local dumbification society^H... hum, sorry... "religion" make
also: phages, domancy (Score:3)
also, additionnally, the behaviour isn't restricted to viruses (things that attack our cells).
Some phages (the thing that attack bacteria. it child's terms, it's a microbe's microbe) can also display similar behaviour and optionally incorporate into a bacteria host.
Incorporation is a valid strategy, because then the invader can lie dormant, it will reproduce with the multiplication of the host cell (or host bacteria in phage's case) and can bid its time until a good opportunity to start reproducing again.
Re:DNA? (Score:5, Informative)
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Thanks I thought that Retro virus just invade people with polka dots and Andy Warhol?
But I'm shocked that it's literally inserted into their DNA.
No wonder those hippies never move forward in time.
I will be more sensitive to what they are going through in future. #notwierdjustsick
I have a lot of sympathy for people with autism, but it ends when they think can do humour. See above before arguing.
Who has been having unprotected sex with mice!? (Score:1)
You really have to get help, sooner rather than later.
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You really have to get help, sooner rather than later.
Google onGerbilling [wikipedia.org].
It's probably the same crowd. From the Wikipedia article:
Gerbilling, also known as gerbil stuffing or gerbil shooting, is a rumoured sexual practice of inserting small live animals (usually gerbils but also mice, hamsters, rats and various other rodents) into the human rectum to obtain stimulation.
According to folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand, accounts of gerbilling were first recorded in 1984 and initially were said to involve a mouse and an unidentified man. In subsequent versions of the story, the animal was a gerbil and the story applied to several male celebrities.
Back in the Usenet days . . . there used to be a newsgroup called alt.sex.bestiality . . . their motto was "Give a Dog a Bone" . . .
How to kill HIV in mice (Score:1)
Set the oven to 425F ...
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Old news (Score:1)
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Humanized mice (Score:2)
If it worked in humanized mice, the first clinical trials should be done on mousy humans.
Curses...foiled again (Score:3)
AIDS has already been tamed down to the point where it's more of an inconvenience than a death sentence. Now it looks like within a couple or three of decades of its discovery, we'll have found a cure.
Somebody's going to have the happy job of telling those Southern Baptist preachers who have spent years wagging their fingers and lecturing us about how AIDS is God's punishment for being gay that the old boy's just not making curses like he used to.
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That's not an issue in civilized countries, where health care is considered to be a human right.
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The S. Baptists preachers will simply declare it a Sin Against G-d to receive any medical fix for AIDS, and that it is perverting the will of G-d not to die from your sins. This is the same crowd of clowns who inveigh against use of the HPV vaccine, and especially in young girls, because somehow this will make them more promiscuous.
Actually, it isn't only the S. Baptists preachers, many Evangelical or Fundamentalist preachers hold the same views.
As a side note, some are Prosperity Preachers like Mike Murdoc
But God loves lesbians! (Score:2)
In this world, there are the people who start at the conclusion and work backwards and the people who start at the premises and work forwards. And I for one really wish our political battle lines could be redrawn along these lines instead of the current unpredictable snowballing clusterfuck.
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Great comment! If it were possible, I'd award you mod points.
Isn't this backwards? (Score:3)