5 ms·
From another source: "The medication works in two ways: First, it interrupts viral replication by preventing HIV from reaching the nucleus of an infected cell,
by 4fterd4rk 2y ago
From another source:
"The medication works in two ways: First, it interrupts viral replication by preventing HIV from reaching the nucleus of an infected cell, which then blocks reproduction.
The second mechanism is for cases in which integration of the HIV genome has already occurred. In this instance, lenacapavir interferes with production of viral progeny, “making them defective so that they are not able to infect other cells.” Therefore, it works in both early and late stages of the HIV life cycle to disrupt replication."
Since the drug works in two ways, it would be difficult for the virus to adapt. Similarly to how the current commonly prescribed PrEP regimen (Descovy or Truvada) is two different drugs in one pill and has not lead to any significant rise in resistance.
- gibolt 2y agoDifficult doesn't mean impossible. Trillions and trillions of chances for mutations to happen may lead to resistance over some period of time. Hopefully not, but evolution is a powerful beast.
- Vecr 2y agoYes that is correct, it's pretty easy to create escape variants in the lab. I don't think people should be doing it with virus like HIV and SARS, but they do.
- ljsprague 2y agoWhat about with coronaviruses?
- fwip 2y agoSARS was caused by a coronavirus.
- nkozyra 2y agoFair argument for doing it with highly mutative viruses like coronavirus and influenza, because it gives you a chance to prepare.
- mkolodny 2y agoI'm surprised people are still making that argument even after the pandemic showed us the risk is nowhere near worth the reward. Regardless you need to create a vaccine for the discovered virus (which can take less than a week, as was the case with covid). And then you still need to go through months of human trials. I was hoping we were done risking starting pandemics by purposefully creating new deadly viruses.
- HaZeust 2y agoCan you please cite a source that shares that it took "less than a week" for the COVID vaccine to be developed after discovery?
- mkolodny 2y ago“You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vac...
- palata 2y agoIsn't there a big difference between "designed" and "developed"? For instance the whole testing phase? Which doesn't mean it is not impressively fast, but still it's not done in a week. Plus testing the covid vaccines was quick because there were many many people to participate in the tests.
- zelphirkalt 2y agoIs this assuming, that Covid was lab made? Since I have not seen or read about proof of that theory, this comes across a bit like conspiracy theory.
- jjeaff 2y ago
- xkcd1963 2y agoAh thats how we got Covid
- Moldoteck 2y agothis could happen, but hiv isn't contagious like the flu so even if there'll be an individual with such a strain - how likely it'll pass to others? Also, this drug limits replication, meaning there'll be less and less mutations over time compared to a fully spread virus
- est31 2y agoHIV has a crazy high mutation rate, way larger than other viruses like SARS-COV-2 or the influenza virus. In an infected untreated human, you have at least one copy of the HIV virus produced for each base pair mutation within a day or so. In other words, if there is a single base pair mutation that makes HIV resistant to a single drug, HIV will adapt quickly. So that's why they quickly discovered to do double therapy, and nowadays one does triple therapy even, so that a virus has to randomly become resistant to three drugs at the same time.
- cchi_co 2y ago[dead]
- shellfishgene 2y agoAs far as I understand it both ways are based on the drug binding to the capsid, so if the capsid protein changed resistance could evolve.