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Yet... I'm probably overly paranoid and certainly under-educated (possibly even to the point of the level of believing in "magic"), but accelerating the mutati

Yet... I'm probably overly paranoid and certainly under-educated (possibly even to the point of the level of believing in "magic"), but accelerating the mutation rate of something like this just scares me. As I said though, that's an emotionally based feeling and not logical. I'd be VERY happy to have someone scientifically show me I'm full of #$!#.

Aassssspqq 18y ago
I can't tell if Hollywood is just freaking us out as a culture or if this is another KILLER BEES scare... I Am Legend vs. Y2K fear.
- arien 18y ago
  I would get ready for anything. Reality surpases fiction :)
wheels 18y ago
I find a good benchmark is to look and see if there's outcry from within the scientific community. These days if something really is off-the-wall-crazy somebody from that field is going to be ranting about it and it won't be too hard to find. If that quick little test fails, then what you're worrying about is that if you sail too far west that you'll fall of the edge of the world.
gnaritas 18y ago
From my understanding, HIV is already near the max mutation rate that is sustainable, this is what makes it so hard to kill. But it's on the edge of the cliff, if it mutates any faster then too many of the mutated cells aren't viable and not enough live on to the next generation to maintain the population. You have to understand that most mutations are harmful, beneficial mutation are extremely rare so there is a maximum rate of mutation before mutation itself becomes deadly to the virus. Pushing it over this limit by hijacking its replication process and damaging the DNA is brilliant. Consider how long the human race would survive if our mutation rate was 80%, things like mental retardation, autism, physical deformity, infant death, etc. would sky rocket, it wouldn't be long before most people couldn't take care of themselves.
electromagnetic 18y ago
HIV's mutation rate occurs after entry. This is due to the fact that HIV seems utterly incapable of fighting the human body without making itself weak in the process. HIV beats the human immune system by changing itself quicker than the human body can adapt. It's like one day you're fighting the Nazi's, the next day its the USSR, then it's Mussolini's Italy, then it's Saddam and then some Aztec warriors with machine guns. Each day you're expecting to wake up and see more Nazi's, you're not expecting the Iraqi army. Each of these armies is on the retreat, it's just that they win by attrition because every mutation they have they get to swarm your immune system. It is true that the virus can spread during this time, it's just far less likely. The drug they're proposing is that they make the HIV virus switch its uniform (surface markers in the biological sense) faster, say every 6 hours. Well the problem with this is that you're potentially going to kill the cells through ware, or you're going to end up with an Aztec-Nazi-Russian (or a HIV virus with multiple surface markers) so you then know to attack all of them. You're somewhat right, with this kind of drug it's likely only going to benefit us that we're cautious to make sure it doesn't create a new virus. Hopefully the virus will cause the HIV to present multiple surface markers and by this help the body target the virus more efficiently.

Aassssspqq 18y ago

I can't tell if Hollywood is just freaking us out as a culture or if this is another KILLER BEES scare... I Am Legend vs. Y2K fear.

arien 18y ago
I would get ready for anything. Reality surpases fiction :)

wheels 18y ago

I find a good benchmark is to look and see if there's outcry from within the scientific community. These days if something really is off-the-wall-crazy somebody from that field is going to be ranting about it and it won't be too hard to find. If that quick little test fails, then what you're worrying about is that if you sail too far west that you'll fall of the edge of the world.

gnaritas 18y ago

From my understanding, HIV is already near the max mutation rate that is sustainable, this is what makes it so hard to kill. But it's on the edge of the cliff, if it mutates any faster then too many of the mutated cells aren't viable and not enough live on to the next generation to maintain the population. You have to understand that most mutations are harmful, beneficial mutation are extremely rare so there is a maximum rate of mutation before mutation itself becomes deadly to the virus. Pushing it over this limit by hijacking its replication process and damaging the DNA is brilliant. Consider how long the human race would survive if our mutation rate was 80%, things like mental retardation, autism, physical deformity, infant death, etc. would sky rocket, it wouldn't be long before most people couldn't take care of themselves.

electromagnetic 18y ago

HIV's mutation rate occurs after entry. This is due to the fact that HIV seems utterly incapable of fighting the human body without making itself weak in the process. HIV beats the human immune system by changing itself quicker than the human body can adapt. It's like one day you're fighting the Nazi's, the next day its the USSR, then it's Mussolini's Italy, then it's Saddam and then some Aztec warriors with machine guns. Each day you're expecting to wake up and see more Nazi's, you're not expecting the Iraqi army. Each of these armies is on the retreat, it's just that they win by attrition because every mutation they have they get to swarm your immune system. It is true that the virus can spread during this time, it's just far less likely. The drug they're proposing is that they make the HIV virus switch its uniform (surface markers in the biological sense) faster, say every 6 hours. Well the problem with this is that you're potentially going to kill the cells through ware, or you're going to end up with an Aztec-Nazi-Russian (or a HIV virus with multiple surface markers) so you then know to attack all of them. You're somewhat right, with this kind of drug it's likely only going to benefit us that we're cautious to make sure it doesn't create a new virus. Hopefully the virus will cause the HIV to present multiple surface markers and by this help the body target the virus more efficiently.