To modify their patients’ T-cells, Dr. June and his colleagues tried a daring approach: they used a disabled form of H.I.V.-1. They are the first ever to use H.I.V.-1 as the vector in gene therapy for cancer patients (the virus has been used in other diseases).And to those in the past who wondered why were spending money on a "gay disease" and no amount of "gay people are humans too" would convince them, I would now like to say: I told you so.
The AIDS virus is a natural for this kind of treatment, Dr. June said, because it evolved to invade T-cells. The idea of putting any form of the AIDS virus into people sounds a bit frightening, he acknowledged, but the virus used by his team was “gutted” and was no longer harmful.
DU: And to those in the past who wondered why were spending money on a "gay disease" and no amount of "gay people are humans too" would convince them, I would now like to say: I told you so.I am a much worse person than either of you. I would like to tell them that there is a cure for their loved-one's cancer, but it requires shooting them up with "gay genes".
JHarris: Never stop telling them this. I'll them this this too if you like.
Mr. Ludwig’s disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, is a cancer of B-cells, the part of the immune system that normally produces antibodies to fight infection. All B-cells, whether healthy or leukemic, have on their surfaces a protein called CD19. To treat patients with the disease, the researchers hoped to reprogram their T-cells to find CD19 and attack B-cells carrying it....which means a compromised immune system that requires lifelong management, yes? Additionally, in other patients:
...
The treatment wiped out all of the patients’ B-cells, both healthy ones and leukemic ones, and will continue to do for as long as the new T-cells persist in the body, which could be forever (and ideally should be, to keep the leukemia at bay). The lack of B-cells means that the patients may be left vulnerable to infection, and they will need periodic infusions of a substance called intravenous immune globulin to protect them.
Engineered T-cells have attacked healthy tissue in patients at other centers. Such a reaction killed a 39-year-old woman with advanced colon cancer in a study at the National Cancer Institute, researchers there reported last year in the journal Molecular Therapy.ZakDaddy's Hope: That through Science! researchers discover an even better way to selectively target cancerous cells and leave healthy tissue alone. Godspeed.
She developed severe breathing trouble 15 minutes after receiving the T-cells, had to be put on a ventilator and died a few days later. Apparently, a protein target on the cancer cells was also present in her lungs, and the T-cells homed in on it.
Overall, CDC’s new incidence estimates continue to show thatSo out of 100% if you drop the 12% related to injection drugs you have 61% from male to male sex and 27% from male/female sex, (my understanding if that female-female HIV transmission is so small as to be statistically irrelevant) a more than 2:1 ratio. That 27% of the roughly 50,000 new HIV cases a year, or 13,500.
Gay and bisexual men remain the population most heavily affected by HIV in the United States. CDC estimates MSM represent approximately 2% of the US population, but accounted for more than 50% of all new HIV infections annually from 2006 to 2009 –56% in 2006 (27,000), 58% in 2007 (32,300), 56% in 2008 (26,900) and 61% (29,300) in 2009.
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posted by modemac at 6:25 AM on September 14, 2011 [24 favorites]