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CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

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Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#21

Post by iplaw »

revelation wrote: post #6
mandude wrote: post #2

Gene therapy (and CRISPR) is ultimately going to eliminate most if not every ailment/issue/genetic problem that we have, including aging and eye problems. Very thankful we are reaching the point where we can go into our cells and fix ourselves.

That was the plan from the start, no? I was pretty disappointed to learn that most drug research is essentially mass testing all kinds of molecular agents that happen to show some beneficial effect for a problem at hand. It seems just too simple a method.

That is rapidly changing to a more targeted approach.

However, don't downplay the importance of the shotgun approach. In the broadest sense, it gave us Viagra for ED (common reported side effect in an unrelated trial), Aleve (intended to be a hangover treatment you'd take the night before), ...

With computer and analytical modeling, it's a much easier process to identify a problem and reverse engineer a treatment.

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#22

Post by throwaway18917 »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #4

As exciting as this is, we already know how people have used the decreased danger of HIV infection to become careless about other types of STIs. Given that our antibiotics are losing their ability to treat many common STIs, an HIV cure without some advancement in antibiotics will be swapping one epidemic for a series of others. Edit: I wanted to add a couple sources for my claims above. Once people stopped believing…

I mean, okay? What's your point? We can either: a) cure HIV and deal with the consequences, or b) not cure HIV and deal with the consequences. You sound like the people who were convinced that the Gardasil vaccine was just going to enable people to have as much unprotected sex as they wanted.

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#24

Post by ythn »

mandude wrote: post #2

Gene therapy (and CRISPR) is ultimately going to eliminate most if not every ailment/issue/genetic problem that we have, including aging and eye problems. Very thankful we are reaching the point where we can go into our cells and fix ourselves.

Seems too good to be true

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#25

Post by louithethrid »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #4

As exciting as this is, we already know how people have used the decreased danger of HIV infection to become careless about other types of STIs. Given that our antibiotics are losing their ability to treat many common STIs, an HIV cure without some advancement in antibiotics will be swapping one epidemic for a series of others. Edit: I wanted to add a couple sources for my claims above. Once people stopped believing…

You are right to warn of the risk. But people will party. Else people wouldnt be.

What is needed is not lots of awareness training or protection, but a "morning after" instant test for every STI on the surface of the (planet/partner).

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#26

Post by throwaway18917 »

skj wrote: post #15
ShannonAlther wrote: post #10

It's awesome that this is possible. Right now HIV infections are basically a minor nuisance, provided you're taking the appropriate medication, but this bodes well for future treatment of viral infections.

> Right now HIV infections are basically a minor nuisance, provided you're taking the appropriate medication Even with your caveat, the fact that more than 1 million people died from HIV in 2015 is probably a good signal to not use the term "minor nuisance". https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/statistics.html

How many of those people knew they had it? How many of those people were being treated and were following their treatment plan correctly? How many of those people could afford to treat their HIV? HIV is not a death sentence if you treat it. It's not great, but it's not the '80s anymore either...

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#27

Post by John23832 »

skj wrote: post #15
ShannonAlther wrote: post #10

It's awesome that this is possible. Right now HIV infections are basically a minor nuisance, provided you're taking the appropriate medication, but this bodes well for future treatment of viral infections.

> Right now HIV infections are basically a minor nuisance, provided you're taking the appropriate medication Even with your caveat, the fact that more than 1 million people died from HIV in 2015 is probably a good signal to not use the term "minor nuisance". https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/statistics.html

> Even with your caveat, the fact that more than 1 million people died from HIV in 2015

Idk where you got that number from... From the article you linked, "In the United States, 6,721 people died from HIV and AIDS in 2014". That's out of "An estimated 1.2 million people in the United States were living with HIV at the end of 2013". Since 1/8 people infected with HIV don't know it (and subsequently probably develop full on AIDS and complications), it's fair to say that most of the deaths are due to lack of treatment.

Edit: I see you were talking about worldwide, but that's still out of 36 million people living with HIV in the world.

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#28

Post by sluukkonen »

dgritsko wrote: post #20

If (like me) you don't have a good working understanding of CRISPR, check out this fantastic episode of Radiolab: http://www.radiolab.org/story/antibodies-part-1-crispr/

There's also an updated version of the episode that they aired this year.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/update-crispr/

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#29

Post by timdorr »

natch wrote: post #14

"animal models" is obviously a term of art but what does it mean in plain English?

It's any animal (mice, in this case) with a set of characteristics you keep constant between trials. It could be mice of the same age or weight or that have a specific gene or have the same diet.

Re: CRISPR eliminates HIV-1 infection in live animals

#30

Post by warent »

ythn wrote: post #24
mandude wrote: post #2

Gene therapy (and CRISPR) is ultimately going to eliminate most if not every ailment/issue/genetic problem that we have, including aging and eye problems. Very thankful we are reaching the point where we can go into our cells and fix ourselves.

Seems too good to be true

Fortunately in the late 19th century so did the prospect of Moon exploration and arrogated human knowledge in our pockets. But it's pretty standard now
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