Study: Mass produced antibodies kill HIV in newborn monkeys in 2 weeks
Source: The Oregonian/OregonLive
Human antibodies that were mass produced in a lab have eliminated HIV from newborn monkeys, a new study showed.
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University were stunned by the results, published in Nature Medicine. Not only did the antibodies work in each instance to eliminate the virus that causes AIDS, the therapy was also quick, clearing the virus from the body within two weeks.
"We're very excited about this study because we think it opens some doors for alternative therapies that could be used to prevent infection in babies and children," said Nancy Haigwood, the lead investigator and head of the OHSU primate center.
This is the first time human antibodies have been used in this way, Haigwood said. Researchers have also tried administering antiretroviral drugs to attack a new infection, but those experiments have failed, she said. Antiretroviral drugs are given to pregnant women who are HIV positive to prevent them from transmitting the virus to their babies, but the drugs are expensive and not widely available in parts of the world where HIV is rampant.
Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2016/03/ohsu_researchers_eliminate_hiv.html#incart_big-photo
Seems like progress!
= new reply since forum marked as read
The two types were the benign AIDS that weakened a body but did not kill you, but then people were later on thought to be infected by a "Deadly" version that killed people. A lot of effort went into finding a "cure" for the deadly version of AIDS, but the theory did die, but it was a long lingering death (The changeable coat theory was found to be a better explanation of the differet types of AIDS virus being found).
The concept of Viruses having changeable coats actually dates back decades. I first read about it in the 1980s, but in regards to other viral infections not AIDS. Why it was NOT assumed to be the case with AIDS seems unclear, I suspect wishful thinking. On the other hand, AIDS being a killer, and the other viruses with Coats tended NOT be be killers, just long lingering diseases (i.e. the viruses were designed to spread but the best way to do that was NOT to kill the host, but at the same time survive inside a host) seems to have encouraged researchers to miss the concept of changeable coats in the case of AIDS.
AIDS research has gone down several blind alleys (The two types of AIDS theory was one such blind alley) but at the same time a lot of research has been done.
Since the 1990s, two types of AIDS have been found, with AIDS-1 the dominate version, which has in turn four types (types M,N,O,and P), with AIDS-1 Type M being dominate and itself broken into subtypes, A,B,C,D,E, F,G,H,J, K and "CRF"
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AIDS viruses do intermix and thus the "CRF" is "circulating recombinant forms" of combination of the various types and subtypes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtypes_of_HIV
HIV type 1 and HIV type 2 are two distinct viruses. Worldwide, the predominant virus is HIV-1, and generally when people talk about HIV without specifying the type of virus they are referring to HIV-1.
The relatively uncommon HIV-2 virus is concentrated in West Africa, but has been seen in other countries. It is less infectious and progresses slower than HIV-1. While commonly used antiretroviral drugs are active against HIV-2, optimum treatment is poorly understood
- See more at: http://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-science/types-strains#sthash.XW45XqNd.dpuf
http://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-science/types-strains
The strains of HIV-1 can be classified into four groups.4 The most important group, M, is the ‘major’ group and is responsible for the majority of the global HIV epidemic.
The other three groups are N, O and P. They are quite uncommon and only occur in Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea
Subtypes within HIV-1 group M
Within group M there are known to be at least nine genetically distinct subtypes of HIV-1. These are subtypes A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J and K.
- See more at: http://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-science/types-strains#sthash.XW45XqNd.dpuf
The dominant HIV su-btype in the Americas, Western Europe and Australasia is sub-type B. As a result, the great majority of HIV clinical research has been conducted in populations where sub-type B predominates. However this sub-type represents only 12% of global HIV infections.
In contrast, less research is available for sub=type C, although just under half of all people living with HIV have subtype C. It is very common in the high prevalence countries of Southern Africa, as well as in the horn of Africa and India.
We have learned a lot about AIDS in the last 30 years, but still a long way from a cure.
