
Genetic treatment closes door on HIV - kingsidharth
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928023.300-genetic-treatment-closes-door-on-hiv.html
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shandley
Interesting, but not surprising results. These preliminary studies in humans
are technically exciting, but realizing the costs associated with such
therapies along with the complex socio-demographics of the infected and at
risk populations makes this a relatively unrealistic solution.

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bkudria
Presumably, because the blood cells need to be extracted, modified, and
reinserted. How long until that technique is improved?

~~~
shandley
Cell sorting can be done cheaply, but cheap cell sorting is just that. For
this you would want high-purity and low-contamination. The HIV pandemic is
hardest hitting in places like Africa and SE Asia. Many of it's victims are
extremely poor and do not have access to facilities who could manage this type
of experiment successfully and at low risk.

The cell-sorting isn't the only expense either. The genetic manipulations
costs quite a bit too. A cheap vaccine is still a better alternative, or
better yet, social interventions, or a combinatorial approach. It is great to
see this type of work pushing the envelope, but I think of this type of stuff
more like concept cars. They always look awesome on the show room floor of
Detroit, but you never actually see them driving around the streets. Maybe
someday in the distant future, but for now, the victims of this pandemic need
more realistic options.

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dstorrs
"It won't help existing victims" doesn't mean we should give up on this. Based
on the little bit of data in the article, this sounds like it could work as
(or be modified into) a vaccine.

I don't mean to sound cold butif we can prevent HIV from spreading then sooner
or later it will cease to exist.

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michaelcampbell
I presume there will be plenty of followup studies to see if/when/how long
it'll take for HIV to evolve around this block.

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bedris
Press release from Sangamo Biosciences, which has some good background
information on zinc finger nuclease gene editing technology for those who are
not familiar with the technique:
[http://investor.sangamo.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=5531...](http://investor.sangamo.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=553112)

More background on ZFNs: <http://www.zincfingers.org/scientific-
background.htm>

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VladRussian
we were done with syphilis, then HIV came. Once we're done with HIV, what is
the next thing to come?

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kingsidharth
Their hybrid.

~~~
bioh42_2
Or a magical unicorn! We are just throwing concepts around right?

In all seriousness folks, humans and cheetahs and a few other species, are
uniquely susceptible to extinction by disease.

Something bad happened to us a long time ago and thus we can trace our
ancestry to a few individuals! This means one individual group of chimpanzees
can have more genetic diversity (and thus greater resistance to diseases) then
all of humanity.

But if you really want to bet on what the "next big thing" will be, I suggest
you put your money on the plain old (and ever new) flu.

Also the "next 1918" flu will not care if we've conquered HIV or not.

~~~
VladRussian
>In all seriousness folks, humans and cheetahs and a few other species, are
uniquely susceptible to extinction by disease.

Cheetah aren't going to stop using protection just because there is nothing to
fear anymore.

>Something bad happened to us a long time ago and thus we can trace our
ancestry to a few individuals!

These few individuals left Africa by crossing the Sinai and went to spread
around the world. That was definitely bad for Neanderthals.

~~~
dstorrs
> These few individuals left Africa by crossing the Sinai and went to spread
> around the world. That was definitely bad for Neanderthals.

And the relevance is.....?

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VladRussian
that is the reason explaining why "thus we can trace our ancestry to a few
individuals!"

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logjam
Preliminary results, so caution is obviously warranted. The story of genetic
therapy for conditions like cystic fibrosis included initial wide enthusiasm,
followed soon after by an apparent therapy-related death during the first
clinical trials. Recently, however, there have been good refinements for
successfully treating CF genetically.

~~~
gfodor
In just the last week, great news in the CF world on this front as positive
phase 3 study results for the drug VX-770 were released:

[http://www.cff.org/aboutCFFoundation/NewsEvents/2-23-Phase-3...](http://www.cff.org/aboutCFFoundation/NewsEvents/2-23-Phase-3-Study-
VX-770-Shows-Positive-Results.cfm)

