5 ms·

20th century: "HIV is a virus, and viral diseases cannot be cured." [1] 21st century: "Counterexample!" [1] My understanding of diseases is weak. I remembe

by younata 16y ago

20th century: "HIV is a virus, and viral diseases cannot be cured." [1] 21st century: "Counterexample!" [1] My understanding of diseases is weak. I remember being told that bacterial diseases can be cured more or less trivially, but viral diseases can only be vaccinated against.

natrius 16y ago
Some viruses are better than others at staying around. Retroviruses, such as HIV, have an enzyme called integrase that adds the virus' genes into your DNA. That makes it particularly difficult to get rid of. Most viruses aren't that good.
- goalieca 16y ago
  So, it's entirely possible that the rogue code remains unactivated in his cells but remain rather ineffective because the white cells come from a different lineage due to the transplant.
- hartror 16y ago
  Funnily enough Retroviruses are also the major vector in gene therapy.
  - alphaoverlord 16y ago
    Retroviruses incorporate into the host genome and is important for gene therapy. This allows for a long lasting effect and is essential depending on cell type. Different cell types have different turn-around rates. If the gene of interest is for a protein, you need incorporated DNA for continual expression.
ars 16y ago
That isn't accurate. The body frequently cures itself of viral diseases. Do you mean can doctors cure a viral disease? That too isn't really accurate, since what they did is get the body to cure itself - which isn't that different (in principle) from a vaccination (although it's a massive difference in practice).
pak 16y ago
Viral diseases most definitely can be cured with current research techniques. If anything, they present a much easier target than cancer or other end-of-life diseases, because viruses are comparatively simple little infectious agents and comprise the sole cause of the disease, so a cure only needs to attack one thing. Their genome is on the order of a few thousand base pairs, usually only 10-100 genes. You should check out all the new antiviral drugs that have been developed over the last decade, it is really the product of the new age of genome-level research. [1] The main problem in developing antiviral drugs is toxicity, because viruses co-opt certain parts of the cell and have proteins that are usually similar to normal human genes, and you have to find treatments that only target the viral activity. For example, the first commercially successful antiviral [2] targets reverse transcriptase, which performs a function that normal human cells never do (transcribe RNA -> DNA). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_drug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_drug [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acyclovir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acyclovir
mootothemax 16y ago
Don't forget that you can use viruses to kill bacteria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy Yes, viruses are both terrifying and awesome :)

by younata 16y ago

natrius 16y ago

Some viruses are better than others at staying around. Retroviruses, such as HIV, have an enzyme called integrase that adds the virus' genes into your DNA. That makes it particularly difficult to get rid of. Most viruses aren't that good.

goalieca 16y ago
So, it's entirely possible that the rogue code remains unactivated in his cells but remain rather ineffective because the white cells come from a different lineage due to the transplant.
hartror 16y ago
Funnily enough Retroviruses are also the major vector in gene therapy.
- alphaoverlord 16y ago
  Retroviruses incorporate into the host genome and is important for gene therapy. This allows for a long lasting effect and is essential depending on cell type. Different cell types have different turn-around rates. If the gene of interest is for a protein, you need incorporated DNA for continual expression.

ars 16y ago

That isn't accurate. The body frequently cures itself of viral diseases. Do you mean can doctors cure a viral disease? That too isn't really accurate, since what they did is get the body to cure itself - which isn't that different (in principle) from a vaccination (although it's a massive difference in practice).

pak 16y ago

Viral diseases most definitely can be cured with current research techniques. If anything, they present a much easier target than cancer or other end-of-life diseases, because viruses are comparatively simple little infectious agents and comprise the sole cause of the disease, so a cure only needs to attack one thing. Their genome is on the order of a few thousand base pairs, usually only 10-100 genes. You should check out all the new antiviral drugs that have been developed over the last decade, it is really the product of the new age of genome-level research. [1] The main problem in developing antiviral drugs is toxicity, because viruses co-opt certain parts of the cell and have proteins that are usually similar to normal human genes, and you have to find treatments that only target the viral activity. For example, the first commercially successful antiviral [2] targets reverse transcriptase, which performs a function that normal human cells never do (transcribe RNA -> DNA). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_drug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_drug [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acyclovir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acyclovir

mootothemax 16y ago

Don't forget that you can use viruses to kill bacteria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy Yes, viruses are both terrifying and awesome :)