Indian Doc Develops Enzyme That Can Destroy HIV

[Nomad559]

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070914/211/6krfa.html

Dr Indrani Sarkar has has every reason to be excited. Her PhD thesis, which started in 2002 at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany, has thrown open the doors for developing enzymes that can destroy the dreaded Human Immuno-deficiency Virus or HIV within infected cells permanently.

Indrani and a team of scientists have developed an enzyme called Tre. Tre is a custom enzyme capable of detecting, recognising and destroying HIV, much like a pair of molecular scissors.

"In laymans terms, it's an engineered enzyme which recognises sequences in the HIV genome that is duplicated, integrated virus and by the process of recombination, it cuts out the virus from the genome," says she.

The biggest challenge with treating HIV today is that the virus becomes dormant and often develops resistance to HIV drugs.

[rockymountaindem]

Wow

Maybe someday soon the scourge of AIDS will go the way of smallpox.

[sakabatou]

1. If this works

It can be used to treat other diseases.

[Hekate]

2. That is extremely hopeful news indeed. nt

[BlackVelvet04]

3. Hopefully they can get this

tested, developed and in use quicker than the reported 5 - 20 years. There are people hanging by a thread waiting for a miracle.

[eridani]

9. Not bloody likely, unfortunately

An engineered enzyme is very likely to have a whole bunch of unpredictable side effects. Uncovering them and changing the enzyme to avoid them is going to take a lot of time.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

19. telling it when and where to stop is the hardest job

I agree.

[Bluebear]

4. EVEN if it doesn't work, and let's hope it does, bless her for trying.

Many thanks to all those who are trying to rid us of this and all other diseases.

[shenmue]

5. Please let this be right

:cry:

It's about time.

[aquart]

6. And now I'm crying.

For the ones I loved who couldn't hold on. For the ones I liked who didn't survive. For the ones I didn't even like who died too soon.

They should have been here to grow old with me.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

14. I see the premise of these clinical trials, but I wonder where the good

or the bad news is. One would think they could at least post the results one way or the other. This is taxpayer funded and they shouldn't sit on the results. I take time released Lipoic Acid everyday for blood sugar balance and general antioxidant protection. I consider it my one ounce of protection.



http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00033176?order=1

Official Title: Immune Restoration by Lipoic Acid in AIDS
Further study details as provided by National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM):

Total Enrollment: 33

Study start: February 2002; Study completion: August 2004

AIDS is characterized by infection with HIV which leads to collapse of the immune system. Although highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has contributed significantly to lowering morbidity and mortality from AIDS, antiretroviral drugs do not fully restore the immune system and patients often fail multi-drug treatment. Hence, there is a need for alternative/complementary medicine (CAM) that can restore an immune system ravaged by HIV/AIDS. To address this need, investigators have formed a multidisciplinary collaboration to evaluate and demonstrate utility of natural immune-based modulators in ethnically diverse patients with HIV/AIDS. The long-term goal of this proposal is to develop a CAM therapy to facilitate immune reconstitution and HIV eradication following cessation of antiretroviral treatment or concurrent with continued antiretroviral treatment. It is based on the premise of a widespread deficiency of glutathione (GSH), vital to lymphocyte function, in patients with HIV/AIDS. The proposed project will study the immunomodulatory and antiretroviral effects of a dietary antioxidant, alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), which is known to efficiently boost systemic GSH.

In this study, HIV-infected adults unresponsive to HAART (i.e. those with persistent CD4+ count > 50 cells/mm3, viral load> 10,000 copies/cc) will be randomized into a treatment or a control arm. The treatment group will be given 300 mg ALA thrice daily for 6 months and the control group will receive inert placebo. Studies performed at baseline and at 2,4, and 6 months will include estimation of CD4+ count, HIV RNA, T-cell reactivity in vitro and whole blood GSH level. Significance of changes from baseline parameters will be analyzed by t-tests. The proposed research will show whether GSH augmentation by ALA increases CD4+ cell number and T cell function and reduces viral load in subjects unresponsive to antiretroviral therapy.

[aquart]

15. Thank you.

[TZ]

20. Its because the clinical trials AREN'T complete

This is merely Phase 2 of the trial. Phase 3 is probably underway, unless the results of phase 2 were bad enough to end the trial earlier. Phase 3 can be 3-5 years long, FYI.
I do not believe that they can legally publically release results on clinical trials until its either a) halted or b) completed.
Remember that clinical trials commonly last 10+ years.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

23. Woah... so if 10,000 people have tried Lipoic Acid on their own and

had good results, it won't be true for 10+ years. Pity.

[burrowowl]

7. If it works

it would indeed be a very good thing!

[WindRavenX]

8. Very cool.

And it sounds like a very cleaver way to go about it.

:kick: for hope.

[TZ]

22. Isn't this base on the same concept

as the enzymes that are used to perform PCR on a regular basis? I think I read about this earlier. It seems to me that HIV is going to need multiple solutions to problems...vaccines (I just heard about another vaccine moving forward in trials) and then these types of enzymatic inhibitors.

[originalpckelly]

10. OMG! That's wonderful! I was just thinking why someone hadn't pursued this...

or some type of genetically engineered bacteria to "eat" infected cells and free HIV in the bloodstream. This is great. It's precisely what's needed to nail this son of a bitch once and for all!

Hopefully they'll be able to get this thing going as soon as possible so that those poor dear souls out there with HIV can finally be...cured. Wow! It's really weird to consider that a possibility when everyone has become used to it being incurable.

[Bitwit1234]

11. If it works she is to be congradulated

but isn't it odd all the new scientific discoveries are being done by foreign countries.

The United States used to be the source of new developements to help the world and the sick. But with the corporations owning the medical and drug companies if it doesn't make 1000% profit for them they don't bother. And with the religious right trying to close down all the scientific organizations nothing like this will ever happen.

[Deja Q]

12. I recall the tele-evangelical pastor saying something to that effect...

Or, rather, telling people that today's problems are merely "perceived" ones and that we should still make children, and the rest of it. He said "Where would future American scientists come from otherwise?" (something to that effect)

So I wrote him an e-mail about offshoring. Got no response; he had an answer to every perceived problem... except offshoring.

I couldn't care who devised any potential cure. What bothers me is why in so-called "globalization", which suggests an expansion for the ENTIRE world, why only American scientists are being given the push? Seems more like "migration".

And is it all about profit? (probably, but that little tinfoil hat is very stylish this time of year.)

Besides, with all the talk of lower quality goods coming from India, it's no doubt the drug will be made there too. Who'd want to take it? (read this CBS News article, or at least one person who went out of his way to change the topic from China to India. It wasn't me...

Off Topic

Topic : Made in India
Source : Asia Times Online
Front Page - Sep 12, 2007
___

While recent stories on Food Safety Scares have focused on China, India''s export woes are equally worrisome.

More Indian food exports were banned from :
The US - In the first Six months of this year
than those from - China

New Delhi can expect World Focus to shift to it.

If its not - Manufactured in the U.S. - It won''t be sold in - The U.S.
If its - Not - Produced in the U.S - It won''t be sold in - The U.S.
If its - Not - Built in the U.S. - It won''t be sold in - The U.S.

It won''t be sold in : The U.S. ! ! !

Lastdance

FWIW, it's good to see real progress. I just wanted to refrain from wandering into the "it's all offshored" and "who's going to want to buy it" tangent while not mentioning the "There's no profit in a cure" cynicism angle either... too late for that one, but nobody's perfect.

[cutlassmama]

13. bingo!

[druidity33]

18. i don't find it odd... nt

[tomreedtoon]

16. Go watch the "Resident Evil" movies and see if you still cheer.

If this works at all, it will turn us into blood-thirsty zombies.

[uppityperson]

17. k&r

[Vidar]

21. K&R.

[and-justice-for-all]

24. "five and 20 years "

that is a long time when combating a pandemic.