-
The search for a cure for AIDS: If it ain’t broke…
March 12, 2014 Editor 0
To your very good health, sir!GENE therapy usually works by repairing a broken gene or creating a new one where none previously existed. Breaking a working gene to effect a cure is a novel approach. That, though, is what Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues are trying to do. As they explain in the New England Journal of Medicine, by damaging a gene called CCR5 they hope to treat—and possibly cure—infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.CCR5 encodes a protein that sits on the surface membranes of T-lymphocytes, cells which are part of the immune system. The protein’s job is to latch onto signal molecules called chemokines. Unfortunately, it also latches onto strains of HIV, assisting their passage into the lymphocyte, where the virus then reproduces.A consequence is that those whose CCR5 genes are broken are immune to infection by these strains. Moreover, an HIV patient called Timothy Brown (pictured) who, in 2007 and 2008, had bone-marrow transplants from a donor with broken CCR5…
Related Posts
Systematic Review of the Performance of HIV Viral Load Technologies on Plasma Samples.
mHealth for HIV Treatment & Prevention: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
A systematic review of the literature on self-management interventions and discussion of their potential relevance for people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
HIV virus spread and evolution studied through computer modeling
HIV and mothers’ milk: As luck would have it
AIDS: Bursting HIV’s bubble
Categories: The Economist
Tags: aids, Health_Medical_Pharma, Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, HIV, HIV/AIDS
Bioprinters: Printing a bit of me Sharing Experiences and Insights to Enhance Gender Equality in Sub-Saharan Africa
Subscribe to our stories
Recent Posts
- SL Crowd Green Solutions September 21, 2020
- Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics August 3, 2020
- Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey! August 3, 2020
- 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic August 3, 2020
- innovation + africa; +639 new citations August 3, 2020
Categories
Archives
Popular Post-All time
- A review on biomass-based... 0.9k views
- Can blockchain disrupt ge... 672 views
- Prize-winning projects pr... 646 views
- Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 602 views
- Test Your Value Propositi... 524 views