Who Said HIV Wasn’t A Government Conspiracy?
by Marty Schwartz on December 18, 20103 comments
Pictured: Science kicking ass.
Hitting the news this week – though not as loudly as some might have thought – was a story about an HIV-Positive patient in Germany who, through the use of stem cells, may have been cured.
Perhaps if these guys had announced it, it would have been bigger news.
The fanfare was a bit muted, perhaps because the ‘Berlin Patient’ had a bone marrow transplant in 2007 after contracting leukemia, perhaps because the experimental treatment is not likely applicable *in its current form* to the larger population. But Mr. Berlin (who is rumored to be an American patient) still shows no signs of having HIV or, for that matter, leukemia. He had received stem cells from a donor who has a rare gene mutation (go mutants!) that makes contracting HIV impossible.
Keep in mind, this transplant was done in 2007, years after the Bush administration had outlawed stem cell research in the United States. So…. how much sooner could someone have come up with this? The good news (and this is hardly news) is that Obama reversed the ban on stem cell research while he was still unpacking his things in the Oval Office almost two years ago. Now, a company in Baltimore is walking happily through the doorway opened up by the German scientists, and using this research to move closer to hopefully pushing HIV into the same ancient history books as the black plague.
Hopefully, someone around the globe takes us to the next step before the Republicans re-gain power and kick logic and science in the nuts once again.
Leave a comment
We enjoy healthy debate and respectful conversation at the Paltry Sapien and do not censor based on political or ideological views. Please refrain from commentary that is derogatory to other users, abusive, off-topic, includes too many links, or uses excessive foul-language. Comments are moderated, and will not appear until approved.
3 comments
Desiree Schell on December 18, 2010 at 1:06 pm. #
I spoke briefly to an HIV specialist about this case. He said:
“In HIV circles this is known as the famous “Berlin patient.” He underwent a bone marrow transplant from a CCR5 receptor deficient donor. CCR5 is a T-cell co-receptor that most strains of HIV use to enter the T cell. CCR5-negative people are uncommon and tend to have very slowly progressing HIV. This patient suffered high dose chemotherapy and then a bad case of graft vs. host disease which almost killed him and ate up what was left of his own T-cells and stem cells. The result 3 years later appears to be a cure of his HIV with no detectable virus off meds for 3 years. Not a cure you would roll out to the masses, though.
The discovery of CCR5 mutants who are long term non-progressors has already led to the development and FDA approval of 1 CCR5 receptor blocker, which I use in clinical practice to good effect. The next logical step would be to develop gene therapy to suppress the expression of the CCR5 receptor. This would not likely lead to a cure in and of itself, but would lead to a marked suppression of HIV replication.”
So while this isn’t a breakthrough per se, it’s still a step in the right direction.
Chris Lindsay on December 18, 2010 at 6:05 pm. #
So did he actually get stem cell therapy, or a bone marrow transplant? This story is very confusing. :/
Desiree Schell on December 19, 2010 at 6:00 am. #
I’m confused too. I’ll be doing a show on it next month, which is how I deal with confusing things. I also had an extended conversation on facebook about it. There’s some interesting links in the comments.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/desiree.schell/posts/156083801104245