"Elite" HIV wife may hold secret to AIDS vaccine

[..]

This could just be the breakthru everyone has been waiting for...

 

[color:purple]By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman who has never shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus may hold the secret to defeating the virus, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

 

Infected at least 10 years ago by her husband, the woman is able somehow to naturally control the deadly and incurable virus -- even though her husband must take cocktails of strong HIV drugs to control his.

 

She is a so-called "elite suppressor," and studies of her immune cells have begun to offer clues to how her body does it, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said.

 

"This is the best evidence to date that elite suppressors can have fully pathogenic virus," said Dr. Joel Blankson, who led the study.

 

"The feeling was initially that they had defective virus," Blankson added in a telephone interview.

 

But the couple has been monogamous for at least 17 years, Blankson said, and tests show they are infected with the same strain of virus. What is different is the immune system of the wife, who cannot be named for privacy reasons.

 

"That's a good sign in terms of developing a therapeutic vaccine," Blankson said. Such a vaccine would not prevent infection but might be used to treat patients.

 

The AIDS virus infects at least 33 million people globally and more than a million in the United States. It has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the early 1980s.[/color]

 

More at the link

 

Cheers,

SD

[Bangkoktraveler]

I have heard of others that seemed to be immuned to the disease. Studying these people should provide some answers.

 

[ozpharlap]

She is a so-called "elite suppressor," and studies of her immune cells have begun to offer clues to how her body does it, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said

 

Yes, there have been documented cases of these "elite suppressors" and we have one that was in Australia. Allegedly, he was the lover of one of Australia's famous TV comedians who died young - that is, conjecture about his reasons for death.

 

He is now shacked up in Thailand, allegedly tripping the light fantastic in the bars of Pattaya. He donates his blood and plasma to research institutions back here in Australia.

[CTO]

Who was that who died young? Not FARK FARK FARK surely? He was old but great!

[cavanami]

Just watched this video, mostly about Nikola Tesla, but mentioned that there have been scientists that have successfully used electromagnetic fields to completely cure tumors and cancer. AIDS would also fall into these cures.

The medical industry immediately stopped all the testing!

 

Tom Bearsden Talks Tesla

 

Pt. 1

45 min.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/Drachnid/9DDE31A0A1B54ABDA50E1251F691D2B2/tom-talks-tesla-1-2.aspx

 

Pt. 2

40 min.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/Drachnid/61CCBBD40C0D40E1A60850CBA3CCFD47/tom-talks-tesla-2-2.aspx

 

[shygye]

There are already drugs out for HIV that are based on the natural immunity a small percentage of the population possesses.

 

Unlike currently available HIV medications which act on HIV directly, CCR5 entry inhibitors are the first class of drugs that act on the human T-cell, changing it in such a way that HIV is unable to bind and therefore continue the replication process. Simply put, CCR5 entry inhibitors work directly on the body's immune system, a novel approach but one that does carry some risk.

[shygye]

Link

 

Scientists in 1996 identified the portal: It was a large protein called Chemokine Receptor 5, or CCR-5, which is a normal part of the cell produced by a gene having the same name.

 

When this gene is mutates, it produces the protein incorrectly. In fact, when people inherit two copies of the mutant CCR-5 gene, the cell fails to make the portal protein at all. It simply does not exist, and the cell is like a house with no front door.