Kccitystar Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Bangalore: Dr Indrani Sarkar has has every reason to be excited. Her PhD thesis, which started in 2002 at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany, has thrown open the doors for developing enzymes that can destroy the dreaded Human Immuno-deficiency Virus or HIV within infected cells permanently. Indrani and a team of scientists have developed an enzyme called Tre. Tre is a custom enzyme capable of detecting, recognising and destroying HIV, much like a pair of molecular scissors. "In laymans terms, it's an engineered enzyme which recognises sequences in the HIV genome that is duplicated, integrated virus and by the process of recombination, it cuts out the virus from the genome," says she. The biggest challenge with treating HIV today is that the virus becomes dormant and often develops resistance to HIV drugs. The only way then to cure HIV is to get rid of the virus completely and Tre, the enzyme that Indrani constructed after a year and its 126 "cycles of mutation" totally deplete HIV in the human genome in three months in laboratory conditions. "It's a beautiful approach, but like any other drug, this one too will take a few years to reach clinics — anywhere between five and 20 years actually. A lot of research has to be done because since one is working with a novel enzyme, one has to engineer the enzyme," says she. According to the latest statistics given out by UNAIDS and WHO, there are close to 39.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world and though it will be a while before an imminent cure is likely, Dr Indrani Sarkar's findings certainly hold out hope for the millions who are battling the disease across the globe. http://ibnlive.com/news/indian-doc-develop...v/48654-17.html It might help if her English or the translator were a bit better. "In laymans terms, it's an engineered enzyme which recognises sequences in the HIV genome that is duplicated, integrated virus and by the process of recombination, it cuts out the virus from the genome," says she. Enzyme = biological catalyst that helps a chemical reaction happen "In laymans terms, we made a biological catalyst that interacts with HIV sequences that have inserted themselves into the DNA of healthy cells and removes them, so when that cell replicates again, it is no longer coding for more viral protein and helping to spread the disease." In super layman Idiocracy terms, "this cool stuff we made finds the bad stuff in you and stops your stuff from making more bad stuff." Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_jefe061 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Sweet, now if they could only cure my herpes! Let's take this in a time machine back to when Magic Johnson was still playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaptorQuiz Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Sweet, now if they could only cure my herpes! Let's take this in a time machine back to when Magic Johnson was still playing. Wow, el_jefe. Way to take a potentially enormous medical breakthrough, that could save MILLIONS of lives on continents like Africa where AIDS isn't just a worry - it's a plague - and make a joke out of it. You're despicable. As for your post, KC - let's hope this isn't just another Red Herring in the search for a realistic way to fight HIV/AIDS... and lets hope there are some pharmacutical companies out there ready to dump outrageous amounts of money into this (since, of course, there is outrageous money waiting to be made as well)... ...it's an unfortunate system - but anything that gets an AIDS "cure" or even treatment onto the market faster... needs to be done. Next up? Cancer. Watch your, back, cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thespungo Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Are you a scientist now, KC? Look at you defining enzyme for us -- you're really diving head first into college, huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred13 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Indian doctors FTW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kccitystar Posted September 19, 2007 Author Share Posted September 19, 2007 Are you a scientist now, KC? Look at you defining enzyme for us -- you're really diving head first into college, huh? Dude I completely raked my science classes in high school, which is why I am not taking them now in college... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronmexico Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 I tend to be cynical (maybe it's my New Yorker nature) about claims like this only because there have been so many "AIDS might be cured" claims where they can't find the last link but have found everything needed besides that. I sincerely hope it's true, but until there is some hard info for me I won't be to ecstatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc006 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 That's great news, I really hope it works. Spungo, I'm in high school biology I know that an enzyme's a biological catalyst, KC took the words out of my science teacher's mouth. On a side note, did you know that scientists expect a mass, uncontrollable plague breaking out within the next fifty years? When you take antibiotics, the combination of people both overusing it and people not taking the antibiotic once they feel better means that there are a lot of viruses that have only been "half killed", which means they are actually stronger than before because they've become immune to the antibiotic. I think that's how it goes, though I hope it's not true, don't want another plague... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kccitystar Posted September 19, 2007 Author Share Posted September 19, 2007 The money is in the treatment, not the cure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_jefe061 Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Wow, el_jefe. Way to take a potentially enormous medical breakthrough, that could save MILLIONS of lives on continents like Africa where AIDS isn't just a worry - it's a plague - and make a joke out of it. You're despicable. Take it easy. Lighten up. Don't lecture me on subjects I care about when I make a joke. You don't know me so save your judgments for someone else. Making a joke is a lot different than not caring. Now, watch this spin out of control because you can't handle a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 How about you don't retaliate all the time for pointless things like this. Just apologize and move on. You always seem to cause problems in the boards. So keep anything that ANYONE may find offensive to yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrooklynNets24 Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 cure for aids If there will be a cure for the Herps this world will be great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrigleyville33 Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 haha guess what abc? im in biology right now and we are learning about catalysts and enzymes... how funny, and i have a freakin chapter test friday i think that this is very ironic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrigleyville33 Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 o yeah and here is the def. that my teacher gave me: "an enzyme is a catalyst in the biological word" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krawhitham Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=130&a=15986&l=en Unique Results from Swedish Study of HIV vaccine A Swedish HIV vaccine study conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet (KI), Karolinska University Hospital and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) has produced surprisingly good results. Over 90 per cent of the subjects in the phase 1 trials developed an immune response to HIV. "Never has such a good result been seen with a vaccine of this type," says Professor Eric Sandström, Chief Physician at Karolinska University Hospital. A vaccine developed by SMI scientists has now undergone the first clinical study on healthy individuals in Sweden in order to examine its safety and different methods of administration. The vaccine is what is known as a genetic vaccine, which uses parts of the virus DNA to stimulate the rapid endogenous production of the proteins for which the injected DNA codes. The trial subjects were vaccinated on three occasions with this vaccine using a needle-free method of injection. In order to enhance the effect, the researchers also gave the subjects a fourth dose of a vaccine in which parts of the HIV virus DNA had been integrated into another virus (vaccinia = the cowpox virus). This vaccine-based HIV vaccine is produced by the USA's National Institutes of Health and was donated for use in this Swedish study. "Our vaccine is designed in such a way that it's able to protect against many of the circulating HIV types in Africa and the West," says Professor Britta Wahren at the SMI/KI. Over 90 per cent of the trial subjects developed an immune response to HIV, and the vaccines have been tolerated well. Scientists now hope to follow up the Swedish study with a larger phase 1 phase 2 study in Tanzania, planned to commence this autumn, in order to corroborate the Swedish results on African subjects and to help train Tanzanians to carry out parts of the study, including sophisticated laboratory examinations, on site. http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=130&a=15986&l=en Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYM Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 This news is great! Finally it looks like we can cure AIDS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoubleD Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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