[olePigeon]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/he...aids.html?_r=2

It wasn't the results they were looking for, but the results they did get is opening up completely new possibilities. I'm sure the data will be analyzed for years to come, and we can expect some really exciting news in the new future in regards to genetically engineered vaccines. Possible vaccines for not just HIV but a whole host of diseases.

Really cool.

“For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” he went on. “Now it’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened. We can start asking some very important questions. ... Although the difference was small, Dr. Kim said it was statistically significant and meant the vaccine was 31.2 percent effective.”

[Oisín]

I hope this ends up indeed being a door-opener to new ways of thinking and a path of increasing success in combatting AIDS, rather than a fluke that was never explained or enabled anyone to make any progress.

Also, this is the best sentence ever:

it is grown in a broth of hamster ovary cells

[osiris]

It's a start.

LOL on the 'broth of hamster ovary cells"

[Big Mac]

Good news. Maybe the MacNN hampster can contribute.

[Salty]

Even at 31 percent effective why don't they start administering it? If we could slow aids infections by 31 percent that'd be great!

[Big Mac]

It would have to go through years of testing. And since the virus is mutates a lot (right?), it could give some a false sense of security and encourage more unsafe behavior.

[lexapro]

Yes, AIDS mutates a lot and gets into T cells via the CCR5 delta32 receptor on the membrane of the cell.

This is why Sangamo Bioscience's procedure it so exciting. They have engineered a way to mutate the CCR5 delta32 out of people (through a process I won't get into here as it's long and complicated). Suffice to say, people with this mutation in the wild type are immune to AIDS no matter how many times you expose them. If you can cause this mutation in infection people- or everyone- you have a viable cure and vaccine.

http://www.sangamo.com/human/human_t...rview.html#HIV

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by lexapro 

Suffice to say, people with this mutation in the wild type are immune to AIDS no matter how many times you expose them.

I love the story behind the discovery of the CCR5-Δ32 gene. Began with research on descendants of survivors of the bubonic plague.

The mutation protects you from HIV and similar viruses like the bubonic plague, but it makes you susceptible to sickle cell.

[lexapro]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

but it makes you susceptible to sickle cell.

Not from what I've read. Have you a link?

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by osiris 

It's a start.

LOL on the 'broth of hamster ovary cells"

Don't knock it till you try it.