OT - Leukemia being cured with modified HIV virus.
For those who are interested, Vice on HBO did a special about a doctor who has created a modified version of HIV and used it successfully to treat leukemia. His patients have been recovering in 4-6 weeks. This is something that is truly amazing, and for those who have HBO or those who have been touched by leukemia, I suggest watching it when you get a chance.
Not surprised. People have been trying to use viruses to limit cancer problems for awhile now. With enough genome adjustments, it could just work. Modified HIV and leukemia would make sense.
(high emphasis on could)
HIV and other "lentiviruses" have been the object of investigation for gene therapy since before I started my grad work in '97 (I worked with retroviral vectors but not HIV). They're good vectors for introducing therapeutic genes because they can integrate into the host genome without needing to drive the target cell into division, which is the trick with other retroviruses.
But clinical trials with viral vectors are fraught with peril... it can be very hard to predict how people's immune systems will react to the vector. The famous/infamous case of Jesse Gelsinger at Penn basically shut down viral vector clinical research in the US for years at about the same time I was working on it (the virus in that case was an adenovirus and not a retrovirus, but the NIH shut down all viral gene therapy clinical trials in the US). Retroviruses, in particular, because they insert into the DNA, can now and then insert into and inactivate an important gene (like a tumor suppressor), have some real risk associated with them. But viral engineering has advanced a good deal since then, and it's great to see all that basic research helping real patients with little hope otherwise.
Yeah idk why I was negged either. lol. Nothing I said was outlandish or neg worthy. MGoBlog's users are funny sometimes.
But maybe the "not surprised" about a potentially ground breaking scientific break through came off as condescending? Not how I read it, but that's my guess
Ah that could be it.
My background is in science, so I usually take these types of things with huge grains of salt b/c most of the time it's ignorant journalists sensationalizing a known topic in the field for clicks.
Hence the "not surprising."
Reading the actual published material puts it in better perspective regarding the actual "breakthrough."
You give the kid a good ol' fashioned case of the bubonic plague.
I did not know that until I looked it up 5 minutes ago. I will never own one of your avatars again.
and Euro Americans are immune to Bubonic Plague and HIV because they possess a genetic mutation that shields them from infection?(CCR5)
This is the result of the mass die off from the various plague epidemics from 1347 onwards.
So get cats!
But cats have toxoplasma gondii.
Well, you can always seal yourself inside a plastic bubble.
We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
But then we're stuck with gorillas!
the gorillas simply freeze to death.
Cures for disease are only found when the cost of cure is more than the cost of maintenance therapy. Gotta make money somehow...
The experimental protocol eliminated CLL in 3 patients, and thus far, without relapses.
There have been other gene therapies using various virion vectors (inactivated viruses used to insert pieces of genetic material into human host cells), and there have been some pretty catastrophic consequences noted when the initial studies (case series) were expanded to clinical trials (larger study groups, controlled v. placebo).
With cystic fibrosis, the adenovirus vector causes respiratory failure that resulted in the death of a pediatric patient.
With T-cell modfication, there have been several mortalities, detailed in another article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/13gene.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
I've seen that movie.
Alt key plus 0233
This is why I encourage my kids to be creative and think outside the box with anything they do -- even how they use Play Doh. When I get older, I want them to be able to have ideas like this doctor and so many other innovative people. Of course I want their research done from an Ann Arbor zip code!
I just had a cousin die from Leukemia last weekend. Going to the funeral tomorrow. This really hits home for me. Thanks for sharing.
Just keep hanging in.
Damn, sorry to hear that. Peace to you and your family.
The hard part is trying to explain death to my 6 and 4 year olds.
This treatment does work (yay!), but it will be very difficult to scale-up to commercial levels. The modified HIV viruses work by inserting new genes into the patient's T cells, making them specific for that person's cancer. This would have to be done invidivually each time, as there are a million (billion, probably) different types of "cancer cells".
It will most likely only work on this cancer and possibly a couple other types at most. The T cells completely wiped out those patients' B cells, leaving them with a compromised immune system for the remainder of their lives. Most cancers don't have a specific antigen that would allow T cells to target them specifically.
Additionally, tumor lysis syndrome, which all of the patients experienced, can be deadly.
Actually, almost all cancers have "a specific antigen"...usually some fetal gene that is turned on in the malignant cells. Of course, to find it, you would have to perform genome-wide RNA screens of tumor cells, and that's just not feasible on a large scale yet. A few cancers have well known markers, so maybe we'll see those come online next.
this therapy works on only one form of Leukemia.
But it's very very promising. . .
I watched that last week, interesting stuff. I recommend everyone check out Vice's youtube page, there are many great things to be found there. I love Vice, was happy to see HBO pick them up.
Shane is the fucking man.
What about THIS. DEAR GOD! PLEASE HELP ME!
This was a sad article. It keeps showing up on my yahoo news feed.
:(
another demonstration of how good can come from an evil. . .
but hoping and praying it sticks..Amazing work if it holds true!!!
So of course I never met him. But I know it affected my grandmother and my mother greatly. My mom lost her father at age 12.
He was an Assoc. Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the time when they were just starting to use caudal epidural anesthesia (late 1940s).
They could not do a whole lot to help leukemia patients in 1940s and 50s.
If I remember my history on this correctly, the potential of viruses as anti-cancer treatements has been at least theorized and to a small extent known for several decades, but coordinated research on the subject is a more recent phenomenon. I just remember reading somewhere that they've toyed with this since someone noted regression in certain cancers after immunization for unrelated illnesses.
In any case, if this comes to fruition as a publicly available treatment, this would definitely be an excellent advancement indeed. I've watched two relatives pass on from leukemia as well as a friend, so anything to mitigate or eliminate this one (and all of them really). Like always, eff cancer.
Once again, since the elimination of sexy bits, we have turned into the AMA blog. Actually not a bad thing on a slow M sports day - truly The Michigan Difference!
p.s. Can't imagine what the happens, nor do I intend to look, on slow sports days on the RCMB or 11 Warriors - lots of flatulence gifs I suppose???
RCMB users spend time trolling UM articles on Freep and DetNews
11 Warrors' users get back in their big rigs and go to work.
I suppose in EL they just sit around the couch fire.
most researchers in the field don't speak of "cures" for cancer. With individualized medicine concepts emerging and genomic screenings available now the variation in tumor/cancer response is indicating more of a management approach as opposed to eradication ideas. Relevant to the gene therapy approach mentioned in the initial post the report stated a 90% remission response to the therapy, not a cure. Additionally, a caveat to this is gene therapy has had some notable failures as mentioned by a previous post. Cautious optimism should be used with some of these media driven reports regarding unpublished results.