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New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

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Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#191

Post by freeone3000 »

kstrauser wrote: post #168
freeone3000 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are unaware of any situations where HIV+ doesn’t turn into AIDS without treatment. But being HIV+ is simply having a virus, not actively dying. HIV+ status also never clears - later tests that are “negative” mean your viral load is undetectable, at which point you can no longer transmit HIV to others. Undetectable = Untransmissable.

That all makes sense. A couple things I’m still not clear on: * If someone has a negative test after treatment, but that’s not counted as “cured”, does that imply it could (or maybe will ) come back if treatment is stopped? * What’s the importance of the distinction between HIV+ vs AIDS, from a public health or human perspective? We don’t talk about influenza+ vs “has the flu”, at least as far as I know. Does HIV+ ca…

* If someone has a negative test after treatment, but that’s not counted as “cured”, does that imply it could (or maybe will) come back if treatment is stopped?

Yes. HIV+ patients require antiretroviral treatment for the remainder of their lives. Most are able to manage with a pill regimen. This is not to say it is cheap or side effect free, but most HIV+ people are able to live normal lives with outpatient support.

(To link it back, PrEP is the same drug used to treat; ex, emtricitabine + tenofovir. Dosage, schedule differs. Other antiretrovirals may be chosen.)

* What’s the importance of the distinction between HIV+ vs AIDS, from a public health or human perspective? We don’t talk about influenza+ vs “has the flu”, at least as far as I know. Does HIV+ carry less stigma than AIDS?

Public health does talk about Inflenza (and other viral positive) individuals. Public messaging is usually with the term “carrier” - but in jargon, this implies that the individual will likely mot develop the disease themself, and will remain asymptomatic, which is untrue for HIV. NCoV-19, recently in the public eye more than any other virus, has a lot of literature around positive tests vs disease.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#192

Post by calf »

dist-epoch wrote: post #135
iandanforth wrote: post #20

The most interesting point of the article for me is that this vaccine appears to be a series of shots which act as a curriculum for the immune system. Each one slightly different and targeting a different stage of B-cell development. I've never thought of vaccine series working like that, so it was a new and impressive idea.

The way the HIV evades effective antibodies is by tricking the immune system to generate antibodies for fake decoy targets that the virus will immediately mutate. So each turn, B-cells are presented with the latest version of the virus, they generate various antibodies to the various parts, and are graded at the end by how well the generated antibodies bind to the virus. The problem is that you have 1 million cells w…

What's the risk of collateral damage or autoimmune issues from this kind of process, it sounds more difficult to evaluate for safety because it is more complicated.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#193

Post by 8note »

sarchertech wrote: post #173
jimbob45 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there will always be the threat of teen pregnancy. Conversely, we could wipe out HIV permanently if enough public will across the world was directed toward it. I fully believe that HIV wouldn’t exist if PrEP had come out in the 80s when public hysteria was at an all-time high and the will to eradicate it was present.

We haven’t even managed to wipe out polio, and that is a cheap, lifelong vaccine.

not only that, people are explicitly trying to bring back measles, and succeeding at it

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#194

Post by Melatonic »

mrguyorama wrote: post #175
dist-epoch wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way the HIV evades effective antibodies is by tricking the immune system to generate antibodies for fake decoy targets that the virus will immediately mutate. So each turn, B-cells are presented with the latest version of the virus, they generate various antibodies to the various parts, and are graded at the end by how well the generated antibodies bind to the virus. The problem is that you have 1 million cells w…

HIV isn't the only virus that generates decoys to trick antibody development, so having techniques that bypass that decoy strategy is very useful.

What else does this?

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#195

Post by OkayPhysicist »

giantg2 wrote: post #169
simonask wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As we all hopefully learnt from COVID-19, slowing sufficiently is the same as stopping. It’s a numbers game. Slowing transmission below some threshold will eventually mean that there are no new transmissions.

Then why aren't STDs, TB, etc, eliminted. Even heavily vaccinated diseases are still around and pop back up occasionally. The only one eliminted was smallpox.

Most STDs we don't have vaccines for, and the ones that have survived to the modern day are the ones that can be good at hiding. Syphilis, for example, has the nasty habit of seemingly going away by itself, only to pop up again years later. Chlamydia and Gonorrhea can be asymptomatic.

The only reason we haven't eradicated TB is because we've failed massively in getting the vaccine to people in the poorer parts of the world. We could eliminate it just like we did smallpox, the only barrier is actually doing the damn thing. It is made more difficult by the fact that it has a rather long latent infection time, but again, could be solved by vaccinating everyone.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#196

Post by seattle_spring »

mannanj wrote: post #164

There's non-vaccine treatments and holistic therapies that work great for HIV too. Though if you talk about this you get labeled woo or an enemy to science. If people could make more money off those alternatives though I think it would be more acceptable to discuss.

Which treatments specifically are you referring to?

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#197

Post by OkayPhysicist »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #34
RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

It's a problem that was "solved" long before that by just wearing a condom and protecting yourself against other diseases too, and even pregnancy. Condoms are cheap, widely available and decades of condom-related education has been given out to many different generation of kids and adults worldwide. Somehow we still need day after pills, abortions, antibiotics and other STD meds, and vaccines, now (hopefully) for HIV…

And they suck. Everyone who's ever worn one knows they suck. If they're too big they completely kill all sensation, if they're too small they cut off circulation, leading to, you guessed it, total loss of sensation. Topped off with the fact that they fail during higher friction activities (you know, exactly the kind that drastically increase HIV transmission risk), they're never going to be an adequate solution, because there will always be people who'll risk it, because what's the point in having sex if you're not going to feel it anyway?

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#198

Post by dist-epoch »

calf wrote: post #192
dist-epoch wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way the HIV evades effective antibodies is by tricking the immune system to generate antibodies for fake decoy targets that the virus will immediately mutate. So each turn, B-cells are presented with the latest version of the virus, they generate various antibodies to the various parts, and are graded at the end by how well the generated antibodies bind to the virus. The problem is that you have 1 million cells w…

What's the risk of collateral damage or autoimmune issues from this kind of process, it sounds more difficult to evaluate for safety because it is more complicated.

It's still the body doing the work, the antibodies will still be tested for self-attack in the regular ways, so there shouldn't be any impact. But immunity is super-complicated, so who knows...

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#199

Post by wat10000 »

gib444 wrote: post #190
wat10000 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More or less fun than dying of AIDS?

Don't move the conversation goalposts (and we don't do "gotchas" here, as you well know) And AIDS is not considered a death sentence btw. It's not the 1980s

This subthread is specifically about better HIV treatments leading to an increase in other STIs. Did you forget about what you were replying to?

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#200

Post by [deleted] »

RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

[deleted]
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