5 ms·

I am sorry, perhaps you are allergic to monkeys, but I did mention them, and I did mention that bleach was not tried on monkeys and succeeded. Monkeys that is,

• JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  Agreed. This protein DOES exist in the body, DOES destroy viruses, and now protects monkeys. That does sound significant.
  • sorbus 16y ago
    "(The research was done on cell cultures; no rhesus monkeys were used in the study.)"
• InclinedPlane 16y ago
  This is a protein that monkeys produce naturally, humans too, except HIV has evolved a resistance to the human version. There has been no research involving giving any animal this protein (even monkeys) and seeing results. This doesn't represent any great progress toward a "cure". You can't administer proteins orally because they will be broken down by the immune system. If people start injecting monkey proteins into their bloodstream their immune systems are pretty likely to freak out, so they'd have to go on immuno-suppressive therapy, which rather defeats the point and may be far too dangerous to attempt with HIV in play. As likely as not, if this research is to come to anything (sans magical ultimate control over human genetics and immune reaction) it'll come from development of a drug that mimics the active site of this protein. In short, we have not the slightest clue today whether this track of research will produce results in the form of effective treatments for HIV infection or whether it will come to nothing.
  • InclinedPlane 16y ago
    Minor correction: I meant to say "broken down by the digestive system" with regards to administering proteins orally.