Baby cured of AIDS

slobake · #1 03-04-2013, 11:50 AM

A baby in Mississippi has been cured of the HIV virus.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...521959748.html
This is great news, maybe a small breakthrough but hopeful for everyone with the HIV virus. Especially hopeful for infected infints. If we can just make to the treatments available to impoverished people in Africa and elsewhere.
I only hope that infected people don't try taking matters into their own hands and try getting off their meds without medical supervision.

jmattbassplaya · #2 03-04-2013, 11:56 AM

Maybe I'm getting a little too technical, but (IIRC) HIV =/= AIDS. HIV can and often will lead to AIDS, but it's not the same thing. There's no cure for AIDS, but there is (seemingly now) a cure for HIV. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

i_got_a_mohawk · #3 03-04-2013, 12:09 PM

Yep, AIDS is where the HIV virus has totalled the bodies immune system.

AFAIK, the research hasn't been properly published yet, I do wonder if it's possible that it could have been a false positive (as far as I'm aware they still test for HIV in a "by proxy" manner, so I wonder if the markers which are tested for could have been transfered from mother to child but the virus wasn't). I hope I'm wrong on that one, though I've seen similar "cures" in making the news before, often from poor scientific journalism or simply poor science.

Hopefully this is a clearcut step in the right direction, at least when it comes to treating infant cases.

slobake · #4 03-04-2013, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

Maybe I'm getting a little too technical, but (IIRC) HIV =/= AIDS. HIV can and often will lead to AIDS, but it's not the same thing. There's no cure for AIDS, but there is (seemingly now) a cure for HIV. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Technically you are correct. However if you can cure the HIV virus that causes AIDS I would think you can cure AIDS. Or, is it somehow different once the HIV virus has led to AIDS?

slobake · #5 03-04-2013, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

Yep, AIDS is where the HIV virus has totalled the bodies immune system.

AFAIK, the research hasn't been properly published yet, I do wonder if it's possible that it could have been a false positive (as far as I'm aware they still test for HIV in a "by proxy" manner, so I wonder if the markers which are tested for could have been transfered from mother to child but the virus wasn't). I hope I'm wrong on that one, though I've seen similar "cures" in making the news before, often from poor scientific journalism or simply poor science.

Hopefully this is a clearcut step in the right direction, at least when it comes to treating infant cases.

I hope so too

jmattbassplaya · #6 03-04-2013, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slobake

Technically you are correct. However if you can cure the HIV virus that causes AIDS I would think you can cure AIDS. Or, is it somehow different once the HIV virus has led to AIDS?

I think it's different, but I'm honestly going off of stuff I read/studied 8+ years ago

Regardless, this is a great step forward! I hope I didn't ruin the mood of your thread because this is fantastic news if it is true.

slobake · #7 03-04-2013, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

I think it's different, but I'm honestly going off of stuff I read/studied 8+ years ago

Regardless, this is a great step forward! I hope I didn't ruin the mood of your thread because this is fantastic news if it is true.

No worries, I didn't ruin the mood. Plus I don't mind being steered in the right direction. Thanks for that.

**colcifer** · #8 03-04-2013, 01:08 PM

THIS IS NOT A CURE FOR HIV!

Cool as this is, this is not a cure for HIV. What makes HIV so difficult to treat is that it builds up dormant reserves of itself in the patient's body. In its dormant state, it cannot be treated. It's a *****. It's thought that this patient hadn't had dormant reserves yet and that's why early and aggressive treatment produced a functional cure. Some contest whether it's fair to say that the patient was truly infected and cured but concede that it's a matter of semantics. This is still great news and could lead to a new, more effective protocol for treatment of infected and at risk infants but this is not a cure for HIV.

Jared Lash · #9 03-04-2013, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slobake

Technically you are correct. However if you can cure the HIV virus that causes AIDS I would think you can cure AIDS. Or, is it somehow different once the HIV virus has led to AIDS?

AIDS is essentially a description of the damage done to an immune system by HIV.

HIV is a retrovirus that uses your bodies immune cells (typically TCells) to replicate itself (turning your cells into little HIV factories) and destroying the cells in the process. Once enough of your immune system has been compromised you are diagnosed as having AIDS. The marker for this is when your Tcell count drops below 200 rather than the 700-1000 that makes up the "normal range"

And I may be wrong, but I do believe that the diagnosis of having AIDS remains even if your TCell count rises.

In short, AIDS is simply a diagnosis that HIV has severely damaged your immune system.

slobake · #10 03-04-2013, 01:34 PM

[quote=In short, AIDS is simply a diagnosis that HIV has severely damaged your immune system.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Jared. Now I am wondering if you take away the HIV virus can your immune system repair itself?

**colcifer** · #11 03-04-2013, 03:24 PM

I'm wondering if anyone even knows that. I'm not going to hazard a guess either way.

Lukc · #12 03-04-2013, 03:28 PM

Funny how I read this exactly how it appeared on tv here. On the tv show about it, they also mentioned a man with HIV and cancer, that after a heavy dose of quimo had no traces of HIV. It's just a matter of time in my opinion, science will always evolve.

Jared Lash · #13 03-04-2013, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slobake

Thanks Jared. Now I am wondering if you take away the HIV virus can your immune system repair itself?

To some extent, but it could also be helped to recover. However most of the research in this area has been done with cancer patients undergoing chemo.

Not to be macabre, but there isn't much info on rebuilding an immune system of someone with AIDS because they don't survive to have the issue of how to repair their immune system.

Here's an article about isolating leukemia patients own T Cells, growing them and then infusing them back into their bodies after being treated with the drug Fludarabine which ravages the immune system.

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_...-immune-chemo/

**colcifer** · #14 03-04-2013, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukc

Funny how I read this exactly how it appeared on tv here. On the tv show about it, they also mentioned a man with HIV and cancer, that after a heavy dose of quimo had no traces of HIV. It's just a matter of time in my opinion, science will always evolve.

They were probably talking about the Berlin Patient, who was functionally cured of HIV after a bone marrow transplant.