[olePigeon]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html

An AIDS patient going through leukemia treatment received a bone marrow transplant from someone who happened to have the delta-32 gene mutation. I've been following the CCR5-delta-32 studies quite a bit, a lot of you have probably seen related stories that I've posted. However, this one is the most promising.

It looks like it may be possible to perform a bone marrow transplant from someone with the CCR5-delta-32 gene mutation into an infected person; the person is then able to produce cells that now contain the delta-32 gene mutation.

Originally Posted by Wall Street Journal

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.

On a side note, the gene mutation was first discovered when a team of researchers were looking into why some people were seemingly unaffected by the bubonic plague. It turns out that the same CCR5-delta-32 gene mutation that made these people immune to the bubonic plague (approximately 1%), were also immune to HIV.

[lexapro]

The company working on this is Sangamo Biosciences. SGMO. I put in a lot of money.

[Cold Warrior]

Since that mutation is in just 5-12% of the European population and very rare among others, plus the challenges of finding bone marrow matches, I wonder what the donor reimbursements will be.

[Rumor]

Perhaps at some point, the gene can be cloned so it wouldn't require donors.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by lexapro 

The company working on this is Sangamo Biosciences. SGMO. I put in a lot of money.

Thank you for the lead. . .

[Peter]

if the person that had HIV got the marrow treatment, could they then donate their (now cured) marrow to another HIV victim?

[subego]

Oooooooh. Clever.

[Atheist]

Sounds promising at first, but it doesn't look like this is a practical solution:

Caveats are legion. If enough time passes, the extraordinarily protean HIV might evolve to overcome the mutant cells' invulnerability. Blocking CCR5 might have side effects: A study suggests that people with the mutation are more likely to die from West Nile virus. Most worrisome: The transplant treatment itself, given only to late-stage cancer patients, kills up to 30% of patients. While scientists are drawing up research protocols to try this approach on other leukemia and lymphoma patients, they know it will never be widely used to treat AIDS because of the mortality risk.

[KeyLimePi]

Caveats indeed. Still, it's an interesting article and I appreciate OlePigeon for posting it. I just think a better thread title would be something like 'Interesting Discovery in the Development of a Cure for AIDS' or whatever.

[calverson]

Being from South Africa, and in South Africa, I know that there is a much more simplistic solution.

All those with AIDS do not reproduce, or have sex.

SIMPLE!!!

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by calverson 

Being from South Africa, and in South Africa, I know that there is a much more simplistic solution.

All those with AIDS do not reproduce, or have sex.

SIMPLE!!!

Considering that you like to sleep around, and the AIDS rate in your area is between 16 - 39% of the population, you might do well to look at this subject in a mature and thoughtful manner.

[calverson]

If I had AIDS, I would.

[Powerbook]

Originally Posted by lexapro 

The company working on this is Sangamo Biosciences. SGMO. I put in a lot of money.

But what is new there? The announcement of their plans is from 2005. Nothing has happened in 2008 if I have a quick look at the stock?

PB.

[Sayf-Allah]

Originally Posted by calverson 

Being from South Africa, and in South Africa, I know that there is a much more simplistic solution.

All those with AIDS do not reproduce, or have sex.

SIMPLE!!!

AIDS doesn't necessarily have to be transmitted from mother to child.

And...

Afrikaner?

[calverson]

What about the Afrikaners?

[Sayf-Allah]

Originally Posted by calverson 

What about the Afrikaners?

Meant to ask if you were an Afrikaner.

[calverson]

No, I am "english" South African.

[Dakar V]

What's the difference?

[calverson]

There are the descendants of the Dutch settlers, who mainly speak a language called Afrikaans, which is a variant of Dutch.

Then there are the South Africans who are descendants of English speaking nationalities, who speak English as their main language. I am one of those.

The Afrikaans are stereotyped as being more racist, and were the people who campaigned more for Apartheid, which is not to say that the English speaking people were totally innocent, but it is portrayed more as such.

[ghporter]

calverson, thanks for the well worded, well rounded explanation of this potentially very touchy subject. Not everyone in North America gets truly rounded "world history" courses in public school...or college for that matter, and so understanding how the Dutch and English came to blows over South Africa is lost on a lot of us.

In any case, (and back on topic), this is still a promising thing, whether new announcements have been released or not. If this particular gene mutation is effective against HIV, then that implies that others may be as well. And if there were a concerted effort to aggressively treat people who were infected over a fairly short period of time, then in many parts of the world, AIDS could indeed be seriously impacted. Unfortunately (and with reference to the above discussion about Africa), there are areas where HIV infection has become endemic, and it would be VERY hard to use this sort of intervention in such areas.

[Railroader]

To continue this off topic discussion: I enjoyed the Wilbur Smith books that used the Dutch and English histories in Africa as the basis for many of his books.

[calverson]

Yes, Wilbur Smith is very good. I was "forced" to read them in my early teens in high-school, and landed up enjoying them very much, especially Elephant Song.

[Railroader]

I am a Monsoon fan.

[linger]

Good News.