HIV flushed out by cancer drug

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33720325

by kungfudoi • 11 years ago

109 15 11 years ago

bbc.com

x5n1• 11 years ago

It probably still does not activate 100% of the virus. Some still remains and reactivates later.

golergka• 11 years ago

Isn't the whole medical field probability-based?

tjradcliffe• 11 years ago

All knowledge is probability-based. The question is: are the probabilities in this case low (or high) enough to be very interesting?

danieltillett2• 11 years ago

This is not the problem since you can chase out any remaining virus just by extending the treatment time. The real problem is viral reservoirs that the treatment does not reach (eg behind the blood brain barrier).

Having said this if I was infected with HIV this is exactly what I would be doing (ie treating with drugs that suppressed viral replication while chasing the latent virus out of hiding).

iloveyouocean• 11 years ago

I wonder how the blood brain barrier is affected by the recent discovery of the linkage of the lymphatic system and the brain?

gus_massa• 11 years ago

I almost agree. From the article:

"This molecule has great potential to advance into translational and clinical studies."
However, the drug has still not been tested in people who are HIV-positive.

To be sure that this new treatment is useful you must try it in a double blind experiment with many patients for many years.

Now, it's only an interesting idea with some in vitro support, but it's no a real cure. The title "HIV flushed out by cancer drug" is an optimistic exaggeration.

hebdo2• 11 years ago

It is worth to remember that there is a way to completely cure HIV, but it is very dangerous, requires a very specific bone marrow match, and does not erradicate all subtypes of the virus. Still, it is interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematopoietic_stem_cell_transp...

ekianjo• 11 years ago

It is worth to remember that there is a way to completely cure HIV

N size on that kind of experiment is VERY limited, so I would be very careful in making such claims.

hebdo2• 11 years ago

Yes, but the underlying mechanism - the deletion in the CCR5 receptor coding fragment - is a known source of HIV immunity in humans.

The bigger problem here is that bone marrow transplant is by itself more dangerous than an antiretroviral-controlled HIV infection. Not to mention that CCR5 deletions are quite rare.

carbocation• 11 years ago

Rather than thinking of this as a way to cure HIV, I think of it as a demonstration that if someone has a life-threatening blood cancer – something so acutely lethal that you will take the risk of destroying their entire bone marrow – then if you can find matched but CCR5-deficient donors, you can also potentially cure their HIV.

fourstar• 11 years ago

Here we go. Curing HIV again.

bmir-alum-007• 11 years ago

It would be interesting if a similar approach might be applied to flush out latent Chickenpox virus (VZV) from people whom experienced active disease because of the massive risk of Shingles' long-lasting, debilitating symptoms later in life.

Interestingly, a similar approach has been tried to flush out the related HSV-1 http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/07/02/us-herpes-treatmen...

fransr• 11 years ago

"The team at the UC Davis School of Medicine investigated PEP005 - one of the ingredients in a treatment to prevent cancer in sun-damaged skin."

PEP005 upside down is "SOOd3d".

pontifier• 11 years ago

I like this "kick and kill" plan. This is the sort of technique that I'm sure I will use to solve a problem in a totally unrelated area some day.

HIV flushed out by cancer drug

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