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Published online 14 February 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.595
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HIV can 'never be cured'
AIDS virus thwarts even the best drugs by hiding in the gut.
Even the best drugs currently available cannot weed out HIV from all of its hiding places within the body, according to a new study of HIV patients in the United States. The discovery seems to confirm doctors' suspicions that once the virus gains a foothold, it can never be fully eradicated from the body.
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I can't agree more!
In the NIAID report is so written: ......The authors conclude that any possibility of further lowering or eliminating viral reservoirs likely will require more powerful drug regimens to stop the low levels of ongoing viral replication originating in the GALT..... http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2008/jid_hivgut.htm it is not a surprize that the available hiv drugs like NRT-NNRT-IP- can not eradicate the reservoirs. Probably the new integrase raltegravir can alter the viral kinetics much faster and better then NRT-NNRT-IP
I must say that I am a little more than disappointed at the scientific community's response to the AIDS epidemic, from the multiple failures of AIDS vaccine development, to the lack-luster treatments, which only hold the virus at bay, not removing it completely. Just because a cure does not currently exsist doesn't mean that the disease is "incurable." Novel problems require novel solutions and in this case, I think that scientist need to approach such problems from a different perspective, intead of just throwing their hands up in defeat.
I was just wondering if spending trillions of dollars on AIDS reserach have lead to the title "HIV can 'never be cured' this is high time to question the scientists how they have spent TAX Payers money and how they are going to spend in future. NIH should change the term "Grants" to "Contracts" and the scientists should be answerable to the society about their faliures especially the big fishes who take the big bites of NIH money without producing any results. SHAME
Brandon, Who said anything about giving up? Yes, these are discouraging developments but I am sure people are trying. Ashwani, money does not necessarily yield results. Nature is telling it like it is, not sugar coating the information. Deal with it. Be optimistic, have faith.
@luigi neri: Its not as simple as just saying were gonna do it and then just doing it, in most cases of such difficult cases such as the HIV it replicates so quickly that it is hard to control it unless you start early. Not only that, its hard to study because while HIV is a very potent disease in the blood, outside it dies relatively quickly.
Im sorry it was @Ashwani khanna
Ashwani khanna does not have the proper perspective. What has your tax money done? HIV *was* a death sentence, now it is a manageable disease, according to the article. Scientists are proud to be held to that accountability. Also, I don't think trillions of tax dollars have been spent when the entire NIH budget is under $30 billion a year. AIDS research is only a fraction of that (less than $3 billion), so each US citizen pays roughly $10 in tax money.
well there is plenty of ongoing research that hasn't given up. the City of Hope trials are presently using RNAi in therapeutic trials, and are due to announce the phase 1 safety trial interim findings in March. This is a stem cel therapy. And will soon be starting an RNAi T cell trial. Totally new approach by world class scientists using Nobel prize winning technology.
@ Wesley How is RNAi stem cell therapy?
Come on, people, look at the AIDS news! Worldwide conferences, meetings, commercials, even holidays! An awful lot of money has been spent into it, but even more has been profited. "Uncurable"? Yeah, right! 'Cause, of course, it is "unethical" to work with the natural stem cells. Surely, a theoretical life is more important, more valuable, then the real, physical life. What else is unethical? Ask yourselves another question. Don't listen to the media, listen to your own common sense. Imagine, you are the boss of a big pharmaceutical company - a good boss. As a good boss, you're obviously interested in one thing: bring as much profit to the company as possible, so you can feed youself, your family and another thousands of emplyees and their families. What would you invest your money into then? Into a cure for AIDS, so that you spend "trillions", become a hero, then everyone gets the cure, and then forget about AIDS, and so your profit is gone? Or, into another "novel" treatment that does nothing but prolonges lives, putting the patients on your "needle" for life, hence securing your profits? Don't say the answer. Just think about it. Can you see the picture? Isn't that clear and obvious?
i donnot agree with "never",in the future,i believe,the hiv can be curd,even now we have no idea.
Yes! really it is unacceptable as such. Just look back to the history n u will find many of example those were the unanswered in past but not today. But blaming on the scientific community that how much u spend on them till and what they returned to u is not worthful in present scenario. Take a look to the HIV back and just try to understand how much back u was and where r u now with HIV. Yes giving up is not the solution from scientifiv community but not the all are saying same thing. The Giving up fraction is very small in scientific community dear. Thanks to all of them those are not with the article but with optimistic way.
Ashwani, it is too easy to blame scientists for not coming up with a cure. But the problem might be as complex too. If the research is given up, how would one find the cure. Never forget that a researcher too pays his taxes like anyone else. Pessimism will never bring any good results. Rather, we must appreciate every effort that is enriching our knowledge to understand these complexities.
In my opinion,HIV is the most dangerous disease in the world. As more and more people infect this disease ,human should find some ways to deal with it. I am disappointment when I see the word "never" in this article.
Science has always been a hope for human civilization,it shouldn't only be an excitement for just a small community"the scientific community". Lets not forget we thrive for others to be happy.It would have been nice if the word "never" was not used.
The point made by Andrew Nguyen is a good one. Yes these results are not encouraging at the moment but it doesn't mean that scientists are giving up. At the moment HIV seems incurable with current techniques and treatments (which by the way are way more effective than it was 10 years ago...) but evolution is part of science maybe in the future someone will try to break the HIV apparent 'invincibility' succesfully. This disease is (alongside with CANCER) the disease of our century and we need to keep faith in science to find ultimately a cure. As long as we'll be searching for a cure there will be hope the key is not to give up!
people are free to make their opinion on any kind of issue whether it is scientific or of social interest, But the fact behind the problem only those know who deal with it. So as far as AIDS is concerned blaming scientists is completly unfair...as, many mechanisms underlying HIV's replication(putative) have yet to be unveiled. SO have patience
Can anybody tell what is the status of AIDS vaccine? What about the vaccine developed by Merck?
it may take time but the cure is sure!
Our current lack of sucess in finding a cure for HIV/AIDS reminds me of the story about Thomas Edison, when he made a thousand unsucessful experiments looking for something to replace the lead-acid storage battery. Asked if he was discouraged, Edison replied, "Not in the least, I now know a thousand things that don't work." He went on to invent the Nickel-Iron Alkaline storage battery (which was the ancestor of the Nickel-Cadnium battery and the Nickel-Metal-Hydride battery we use today. We are still learning what will not work. Oneday we will learn one thing that works and then we will learn something that works better.
The cure was found and patented almost 20 years ago. Go to the U.S. patent office web site and look up this patent # 5,188,738 Also research Dr. Bob Beck, he stumbled across this amazing information that will save millions of lives. This is just info there is nothing to buy because nobody is selling anything. Pass on th etruth to as many as possible. The drug companies wont do it, they realy on the sick to continue to build there empire. PLease look up the patent. You wont believe it!
If you think that is the cure for HIV you must be incredibly high or just plain stupid!
I say follow the money and realize no substantive research happens which counteracts the current belief in pharmaceuticals. If you think this is not so, just ask Peter H. Duesberg.
David, which drug company do you work for? The patent clearly works. You can't recieve a patent for something that does'nt work. Resorting to insults really makes you look smart. I am so jeolous. I bet you have alot of friends.
Quite elementary My dear Watson !!!
Quite elementary My dear Watson !!!
I do not agree with ashwani as scientists could not be blamed for this .They are doing there best job and if they did'nt we could never have an access to the present drugs.So be optimistic.
PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW STERILIZING BLOOD IS A CURE FOR HIV. United States Patent 5,188,738 Kaali , et al. February 23, 1993 Alternating current supplied electrically conductive method and system for treatment of blood and/or other body fluids and/or synthetic fluids with electric forces Abstract A new alternating current process and system for treatment of blood and/or other body fluids and/or synthetic fluids from a donor to a recipient or storage receptacle or in a recycling system using novel electrically conductive treatment vessels for treating blood and/or other body fluids and/or synthetic fluids with electric field forces of appropriate electric field strength to provide electric current flow through the blood or other body fluids at a magnitude that is biologically compatible but is sufficient to render the bacteria, virus, parasites and/or fungus ineffective to infect or affect normally healthy cells while maintaining the biological usefulness of the blood or other fluids. For this purpose low voltage alternating current electric potentials are applied to the treatment vessel which are of the order of from about 0.2 to 12 volts and produce current flow densities in the blood or other fluids of from one microampere per square millimeter of electrode area exposed to the fluid being treated to about two milliamperes per square millimeter.
The patent suggested by Brian Whitehall is by no means a cure for HIV. The techniques patented is one to: "render the bacteria, virus, parasites and/or fungus ineffective to infect or affect normally healthy cells" from blood. It will do nothing to intracellular pathogens such as HIV. I would suggest Brian and others like him should forget about their conspiracy theories and get their facts right before they attack the scientific community.
All the money for a "cure" for AIDS is of no avail, since the researchers who are getting the big grants aren't properly trained to deal with the Lymphatic System. I began helping people zero convert from AIDS in 1993, by properly understanding the secret processes which aren't taught in medical schools. Since HIV attacks the lymphatic system, why didn't they call it "Aquired Lympatic Deficiency Syndrome"?? I believe you can answer that for yourself when you realize how much money they were planning on dumping into AIDS awareness politics - all while the secret truths about what the immune system really is and how it works is conveniently supressed. Most of the time, there is less than one page of every 200 pages of information about the lymphatic system in all the textbooks of Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, or Anatomy. Never have any of the scientists who've been paid the big grant money for doing AIDS research decide to teach people how to activate their own lymphatic vessels and glands - even though there are more lymph vessels than blood vessels and more lymph than blood! Why? You can answer that question for yourself once you gather all the facts. I happen to call it the greatest mass-genocide in history! No one dies of AIDS, they die of all the diseases it causes, which reveals how important the lymphatic system really is - it is the foundation of our immune system! The ZeroDisease channel of YouTube is becoming a great resource on the subject of Lymphology.
If Nobel Prize laureate Prof David Baltimore now concludes that he is profoundly depressed about the prospects of a HIV vaccine it is with very good reason: thousands of talented and dedicated scientists, have been working very hard for decades to find one. I believe one will be found eventually; but as I reminded my optimistic friend and colleague at the University of Surrey twenty years ago (the late Prof Fred Brown FRS) vaccines have yet to rid us of the common cold. While we are waiting for an effective molecular remedy against HIV and its protean influenza cousins, may I resubmit an old fashioned strategy which I proposed in the eighties? (in letters to Nature, to Science and to various others - none of which were published). Let us face the fact that AIDS today is like TB and typhoid around 1930. Let us resort to identification and, where necessary, isolation. Let every person on this planet be tested and placed on a registry for HIV and other STD. Let everyone be obliged to disclose their own STD status and to enquire the STD status of prospective sexual partners. If this had been done around 1980 I venture to assert that we might have avoided half of the present infections: those due to ignorance of STD status. Dr Nicolas George Maroudas Avigdor Meiri 9/1 Sea View Haifa 3 55 00 Israel Tel +972 048 337 315
HIV comes under the concept of BDOD. BDOD has no cure, except prevention.
Title is discouraging the scientific world which are involved in HIV research.
I am surprised and sad that despite enviable breakthroughs and insightful leads to a permanent eradication of HIV/AIDS by Scientists like Peter Kwong [the unveiling of a site-gp120 that does not mutate and his call for drug designers to fashion out inhibitors]; Joseph G. Sodroski and Wayne Hendricksons' work on the phenylalanine 43 protrusion from the CD4 that fits appropriately into a hole of the gp120, suggesting suitable lead compound for the Bioinformatic sharpening as well as others, we are still uncertain about a cure that is staring at us. If we could make use of these wonderful and useful pointers, we surely will clear this conquerable organism- HIV. The fear of HIV/AIDS invincibility as illustrated here by Anthony Fauci and others is as a result of lack of, yet a clear-cut chemotherapeutic agent for it as in the case of Malaria and others. Plasmodium would also have been hiding in one part of the body if not for eradicator- killer agent like Chloroquine then. Very soon, we will obtain eradicators for HIV/AIDS. Then, Anthony Fauci's "It might not ever be possible to completely eradicate the virus from the body, even though people are doing well," will be incorrect. Fauci's INH should encourage some of us interested in the search for HIV/AIDS cure. Secondly, recalling from the HIV life cycle, if there is no entry into host T cells, there is no budding into multiple resistant strains and no devastation of the immune system. As such, they remain innocuous irrespective of where they reside. In all, there is no fear for HIV/AIDS. Posted on behalf of Norbert Nwankwo, Orange Drugs, Abuja, Nigeria.
A proposed AIDS cure by "inductive therapy" has been around for two decades, but has only in the last decade been receiving the cautious attention of the biomedical research establishment. See: http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/aids.htm
What about other therapies that are not based on antiretrovirals? Something viable/in study/in concept?
It's unfortunate and out of place IMHO to have a headline like this in Nature, even with the inverted commas.
I'm a third year medical student at St George's Med School in London and this call for volunteers was in my in-box today: SGUL Logo Research Study New HIV Vaccine The Vaccine Institute is searching for healthy female volunteers to join our study. A new vaccine to protect against HIV/AIDS, has been developed. If you are aged between 18 and 45 you could help us and we will pay you for your time and expenses. Please contact Elka Giemza on 020 8725 2316 or email vaccine@sgul.ac.uk So the hard work at the coal face of vaccine developement continues...I must say for such a serious scientific journal the quality of scientific debate left in this column is surprising, both in some people's (mis-)understanding of the scientific process and other's predilections for conspiracy theory. Funding in such a cutting edge field can never guarantee success, whatever the endeavour. Writers are right in highlighting the improvements in outcomes for HIV/AIDS patients over the last 25 years or so. As a medical student I have become aware that true 'cures' are few and far between and what constitutes effective treatment is often long term clinical containment and management. Nor are diseases static organisms; old disease once thought to be 'cured' have surged back resistant to old medicines and piggy-backing on the HIV for good measure, TB for example. As for the conspiracy theorists and fantasists - never confuse opinion - to which we are all entitled - for informed comment - it belittles us all.
"HIV can 'never be cured'" this is such a clear cut sentence. NEVER???? I know that in the future we will find a way to cure this deadly disease. however now we should not lose our hope and be dependent on the word "never".