AIDS cure...?

[1337 1]

It makes a lot of sense that one would have to destroy the whole immune system to destroy the virus. It's the same way that you occasionally have to reformat your hard drive when you're hit with some nasty [digital] virus. Only real problem is that it isn't easily done on a grand scale, and only the grotesquely rich will be able to cleanse themselves.

Shame it's progress too late for Freddie Mercury.

As sad as it is that it is only affordable for the rich, it is a sign of what science is capable of. Let's hope there are no nasty side effects, and that it becomes affordable in the future. Maybe one day the process will become as simple and easily done as, say, reformatting your HDD. Although one would hope that there wouldn't be a need.

[Alpine]

Interesting theory about the whole wiping of the immune system thing. I just think that AIDS is god's wrath on the gays being spread to us. yeah. Heard that forked up version in church a few times.

Its a growing problem, people. Wrap it before you tap it.

[zircon]

We actually do have treatments for HIV already in the form of drugs that attack it during different stages of its normal propogation throughout the body... however, even these treatments usually just force it into "hiding" outside the blood stream (ie. in lymph nodes) so they are not completely effective.

[Red Shadow]

plus anything powerful enough to cause damage to a virus on the chemical level probably wont strictly affect the virus either

[zircon]

Well, the drugs are antiretrovirals, not chemical treatment a la chemotherapy. While there are potential side effects, it's nowhere near as drastic as completely eliminating all your white blood cells.

[Thin Crust]

Cure for aids... Bleach. If you drink bleach, your body will be rid of aids. But it will also kill you. That's just because ClOH- kills everything.

[Alpine]

Cure for aids... Bleach. If you drink bleach, your body will be rid of aids. But it will also kill you. That's just because ClOH- kills everything.

Dude. Bad. Suicide is not the way to cure Aids. Though is a viable answer. Just make all the people who get it drink bleach. Wow, this is easy. But wrong. Oh so wrong.

[Shadow Wolf]

Bone marrow transplantation is not a walk in the park. Even if all you're looking for is bone marrow to replace cancerous marrow, the margin of acceptable donors is very, very small. Now add onto that the fact that you want bone marrow to combat the AIDS virus, and it gets even smaller.

Then, IF you find a donor, you have to ravage the recipient's body with radiation to completely and totally kill all their existing marrow, increasing their risk for side effects and development of other types of cancer in the process. You have to totally kill their immune system, leaving them wide open to infection and making even a common cold a life or death ordeal.

Provided they live long enough to have the new marrow infused, there is a period of roughly 100 days where you have to watch for graft versus host disease. The donor's marrow may start attacking the recipient's organs because it views the new environment as foreign. If it does happen, every organ in the patient's body is in danger of shutdown.

Then after all that, which is nothing but standard procedure for a bone marrow transplant, you can go ahead and hope it cured your AIDS too. The point is, we're not talking about a widespread cure here. The only reason somebody has a BMT is when they are GOING to die very soon if they don't get it, and even then, success rates are relatively low. Unless they figure out a way to isolate whatever quality of this marrow caused it to do what it did, this is likely nothing more than a medical fluke.

[Thin Crust]

Bone marrow transplantation is not a walk in the park. Even if all you're looking for is bone marrow to replace cancerous marrow, the margin of acceptable donors is very, very small. Now add onto that the fact that you want bone marrow to combat the AIDS virus, and it gets even smaller.

Then, IF you find a donor, you have to ravage the recipient's body with radiation to completely and totally kill all their existing marrow, increasing their risk for side effects and development of other types of cancer in the process. You have to totally kill their immune system, leaving them wide open to infection and making even a common cold a life or death ordeal.

Provided they live long enough to have the new marrow infused, there is a period of roughly 100 days where you have to watch for graft versus host disease. The donor's marrow may start attacking the recipient's organs because it views the new environment as foreign. If it does happen, every organ in the patient's body is in danger of shutdown.

Then after all that, which is nothing but standard procedure for a bone marrow transplant, you can go ahead and hope it cured your AIDS too. The point is, we're not talking about a widespread cure here. The only reason somebody has a BMT is when they are GOING to die very soon if they don't get it, and even then, success rates are relatively low. Unless they figure out a way to isolate whatever quality of this marrow caused it to do what it did, this is likely nothing more than a medical fluke.

Obviously you don't know what a bone marrow transplant is.

[Shadow Wolf]

What the hell? I'm a nurse for Christ's sake, I've cared for patients having it done before. Don't trust me? Try a medical textbook:

Allogeneic BMT, used primarily for disease of the bone marrow, depends on the availability of a human leukocyte antigen–matched donor. This greatly limits the number of possible transplants. An advantage of allogeneic BMT is that the transplanted cells should not be immunologically tolerant of a patient's malignancy and should cause a lethal graft-versus-disease effect in the malignant cells. Allogeneic BMT may involve either ablative (high-dose) or nonablative (“mini”-dose) chemotherapy. In ablative allogeneic BMT, the recipient must undergo ablative doses of chemotherapy and possibly total body irradiation to destroy all existing bone marrow and malignant disease. The harvested donor marrow or PBSCs are infused intravenously into the recipients, and they travel to sites in the body where they produce bone marrow and establish themselves. Once engraftment is complete (2 to 4 weeks, sometimes longer), the new bone marrow becomes functional and begins producing RBCs, WBCs, and platelets. In nonablative allogeneic BMT, the chemotherapy doses are lower and are aimed at suppressing the recipient's immune system to allow engraftment of donor bone marrow or PBSCs. The lower doses of chemotherapy create less organ toxicity and thus can be offered to older patients or those with underlying organ dysfunction, for whom high-dose chemotherapy would be prohibitive. After engraftment, it is hoped that the donor cells will create a graft-versus-disease effect (Ezzone, 2004).

Before engraftment, patients are at high risk for infection, sepsis, and bleeding. Side effects of the high-dose chemotherapy and total body irradiation can be acute and chronic. Acute side effects include alopecia, hemorrhagic cystitis, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe stomatitis. Chronic side effects include sterility, pulmonary dysfunction, cardiac dysfunction, and liver disease.

To prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), patients receive immunosuppressant drugs, such as cyclosporine (Neoral), tacrolimus (FK 506, Prograf), or sirolimus (Rappamune). In allogeneic transplant recipients, GVHD occurs when the T lymphocytes proliferating from the transplanted donor marrow or PBSCs become activated and mount an immune response against the recipient's tissues (skin, gastrointestinal tract, liver). T lymphocytes respond in this manner because they view the recipient's tissue as “foreign,” immunologically different from what they recognize as “self” in the donor. GVHD may occur acutely or chronically.

The first 100 days or so after allogeneic BMT are crucial for patients; the immune system and blood-making capacity (hematopoiesis) must recover sufficiently to prevent infection and hemorrhage. Most acute side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, and mucositis, also resolve in the initial 100 days after transplantation. Patients are also at risk for venous occlusive disease (VOD), a vascular injury to the liver caused by high-dose chemotherapy, in the first 30 days or so after BMT. VOD can lead to acute liver failure and death (Ezzone, 2004).

Autologous BMT is considered for patients with disease of the bone marrow who do not have a suitable donor for allogeneic BMT and for patients who have healthy bone marrow but require bone marrow–ablative doses of chemotherapy to cure an aggressive malignancy. Stem cells are collected from the patient and preserved for reinfusion; if necessary, they are treated to kill any malignant cells within the marrow. The patient is then treated with ablative chemotherapy and, possibly, total body irradiation to eradicate any remaining tumor. Stem cells are then reinfused and engraft. Until engraftment occurs in the bone marrow sites of the body, there is a high risk of infection, sepsis, and bleeding. Acute and chronic toxicities from chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be severe. The risk of VOD is also present after autologous transplantation. No immunosuppressant medications are necessary after autologous BMT, because the patient does not receive foreign tissue. A disadvantage of autologous transplantation is the risk that viable tumor cells may remain in the bone marrow despite high-dose chemotherapy (conditioning regimens) (Ezzone, 2004).

Syngeneic transplants use an identical twin as the marrow donor. Syngeneic transplants result in less incidence of GVHD and graft rejection; however, there is also less graft-versus-tumor effect to fight the malignancy. For this reason, even when an identical twin is available for marrow donation, another matched sibling or even an unrelated donor may be the most suitable donor to combat an aggressive malignancy.

REFERENCE:

Smeltzer, S. C., Bare, B. G., Hinkle, J. L., & Cheever, K. H. (2008). Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical Surgical Nursing, 11th Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Too long? Didn't read? Too many big words? Well I did. If you can't back up what you're talking about, DON'T POST, smartass. And don't EVEN tell me I don't have my facts straight.

[cobaltstarfire]

Obviously you don't know what a bone marrow transplant is.

Do you think before you post? Or are you trying to be sarcastic?

[OverCoat]

Holy fuck it was sarcasm

headinhands.jpg

[EdgeCrusher]

Internet = Serious AIDS business.

[cobaltstarfire]

Holy fuck it was sarcasm

headinhands.jpg

It was one of the the biggest fails at sarcasm I've seen in the universe. Hence me asking if he was trying to be sarcastic.

[Native Jovian]

It was one of the the biggest fails at sarcasm I've seen in the universe.

Seconded.

Kudos for Shadow Wolf being all "people on the internet question my veracity I must slay them with my words before my life unravels before my very eyes!", though.

[Neo Samus]

People still call AIDS the "Gay Virus"?

[Red Shadow]

well it is a pretty gay virus

rhinovirus is totally better

[Chuckles]

It was one of the the biggest fails at sarcasm I've seen in the universe. Hence me asking if he was trying to be sarcastic.

Personally, I thought it was hilarious, then hilarious x2 because of the knee-jerk reaction and huge-ass quote from a medical textbook.

Live Strong, Thin Crust. Live Strong.

[Shadow Wolf]

Kudos for Shadow Wolf being all "people on the internet question my veracity I must slay them with my words before my life unravels before my very eyes!", though.

Bitch looked like he was frontin', so I brought my game. Fool should know you don't come to a nerdfight without a mufuggin APA reference. GOT-damn right.

Yes, I'm joking.