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Protein that destroys HIV discovered

loyolamedicine.org

41–50 of 72 posts

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#41
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, precisely, the lab is not the human body. The fact that you can kill HIV with X in the lab is meaningless. Bleach does a quite adequate job of that. However, we care about in vivo efficacy, and that's qualitatively a different problem. For every thousand drugs that seem promising in isolation in a petri dish (e.g. killing cancer cells and not damaging human tissue) perhaps only a handful make it to human trials,…

I am sorry, perhaps you are allergic to monkeys, but I did mention them, and I did mention that bleach was not tried on monkeys and succeeded. Monkeys that is, not labs.

This is a protein that monkeys produce naturally, humans too, except HIV has evolved a resistance to the human version. There has been no research involving giving any animal this protein (even monkeys) and seeing results.

This doesn't represent any great progress toward a "cure". You can't administer proteins orally because they will be broken down by the immune system. If people start injecting monkey proteins into their bloodstream their immune systems are pretty likely to freak out, so they'd have to go on immuno-suppressive therapy, which rather defeats the point and may be far too dangerous to attempt with HIV in play. As likely as not, if this research is to come to anything (sans magical ultimate control over human genetics and immune reaction) it'll come from development of a drug that mimics the active site of this protein.

In short, we have not the slightest clue today whether this track of research will produce results in the form of effective treatments for HIV infection or whether it will come to nothing.

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#42
post #39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Common. You probably are a college student, or the original poster is, or both were thus know full well that you get free access to the journals you need when you are a student. That's entirely false. If there was a single distribution point that charged a nominal fee, that would be one thing, but to do any significant research you need at least 5 such £30 monthly subscriptions, and no school subscribes to all journ…

This should perhaps be my last comment on this. On your first point. I was a student and during that time I had access to all the papers I needed, sufficient papers to get the top grades. Second, I do not know what profession you are in, computer science is very different from medicine. To start with, the latter requires actual physical stuff, you know, people you can experiment with, or monkeys, and substances, like…

>On your first point. I was a student and during that time I had access to all the papers I needed, sufficent papers to get the top grades.

Where did you go to school? From my experience yours is most atypical.

I don't sell applications. I configure and make slight modifications to free applications, or applications my employer pays for (and in my experience the ones that charge have negative value from my perspective, while the free ones save me hours of time.) So feel free to copy my code and documentation and put it all online. Those that aren't available online are only closed because I felt my clients/employers wouldn't appreciate their free availability. You would be giving me a great 'out' to give back to the community.

But yes, reason has little purchase in this place. The community has very strong biases and refuses to give time to opposition.

That said, long live liberty.

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#43
post #36
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common. You probably are a college student, or the original poster is, or both were thus know full well that you get free access to the journals you need when you are a student. A journal has editors, some choose to have their journals in print which requires much money, and some journals have sub editors, and assistant editors, and chief editors, and a whole infrastructure which demands much money to be upheld. If y…

>Common. You probably are a college student, or the original poster is, or both were thus know full well that you get free access to the journals you need when you are a student. That's entirely false. If there was a single distribution point that charged a nominal fee, that would be one thing, but to do any significant research you need at least 5 such £30 monthly subscriptions, and no school subscribes to all journ…

no school subscribes to all journals a student might want.

I went to a crappy (but huge) state university and they did indeed subscribe to ALL of the journals. My family has a good number of academics and this seems to be the case at any large university, regardless of quality.

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#44

> Using a $225,000 microscope I saw a microscope for sale at best buy for $40! This is waste, pure and simple! edit: Either I'm not funny or people don't get sarcasm. Probably the former.

or this isnt reddit

Or this is just a different kind of reddit. Just as useless as the previous kind, for humans only make both.

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#45

This isn't news, nor is it necessarily even exciting. There are thousands upon thousands of chemicals that destroy HIV (bleach is a good example), the tricky bit is working within the confines of the human body. Delivery, dosing, etc, etc, etc. As far as drug efficacy is concerned, those issues far outweigh anything else. Unless you are a drug researcher, ignore news of this sort, when you start seeing drug trials th…

The catch is, I guess, that the chemical here is a protein. We already have TRIM5a in our bodies, it's just not the right allele. Unlike the antiviral action of bleach, this is a mechanism that already works within the bodies of other primates (rhesus monkeys).

Among other possible developments, this might prove the killer application for gene therapy, which has made steady progress in recent years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#46
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Common. You probably are a college student, or the original poster is, or both were thus know full well that you get free access to the journals you need when you are a student. That's entirely false. If there was a single distribution point that charged a nominal fee, that would be one thing, but to do any significant research you need at least 5 such £30 monthly subscriptions, and no school subscribes to all journ…

no school subscribes to all journals a student might want. I went to a crappy (but huge) state university and they did indeed subscribe to ALL of the journals. My family has a good number of academics and this seems to be the case at any large university, regardless of quality.

I went to a ~3000 student private liberal arts college and we subscribed to a handful. 90% of what I needed was out of reach. I suspect there are some economies of scale, but those economies are completely artificial; there's no reason the per-student rate should be different for a small college than a large one.

Well, I suppose there is one: most of the cost is administrative overhead in actually collecting the bill, so it's easier if you've got one bill for 40k as opposed to one bill for 3k

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#47

Paywalls for scientific research are evil. http://209.20.67.195/misc/sastri-identification.pdf (I intend to do this regularly; see bio.)

Thanks. But this being NIH funded research, the publication will be made available in its entirety, eventually, either via PubMed Central or by the authors themselves. However, the journal's version of the article (custom designed format and layout) is indeed copyrighted by the journal's publisher. The version that eventually becomes freely available will be a more or less standard format (double spaced, Microsoft Word formatted), albeit, with all the information present. :-)

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#48
post #17
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or late night orgies. What is so bad about that? Sex is pleasure. Everyone should be able to have the pleasure if so they please.

Ohh right cool, geeks feeling awkward when sex is compared to pleasure? Dude, sex is pleasure, indeed it is one of the highest pleasure! It is not just poor African orphans who get aids. In fact the reason why so much effort is put into it is because it is not just poor African orphans in a far away land. It is you and me and anyone else who could potentially get aids in a drunken night in a club, or park, or maybe e…

Ok, this is a reply to mquander on this thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1628106 (unfortunately I do not know how to link directly to the post and the reason why I am not replyin there is because I can not.

I would not like to see this community as a place where I can validate or discredit the thoughts I already hold. I am only 22 and wish much to grow. In those areas where I might not provisionally want to grow, I write a diary, it is a fine way to speculate about the knowledge one has in his own space.

Perhaps this is desire speaking more than reason, but in this place more than other I have found people who are of my intellectual level, who are inquisitive, naturally curious to learn about such matters, such as to use the easy example, what matter is made of.

So when I suggested, what is wrong with people who engage in orgy sex being protected from HIV, I was not making a point of the kind which seems that people might make, that is of the intention to suggest that it is fine to have orgy sex. I am not fine neither however with orphan kids in Africa being held somehow as angels for whom we must all fight, and ignore the reality which lurks in our street. Sex should be free for all. I do not see how that can possibly be a frowned upon proposition. I do not see why we should be free to put on a hierarchical scale the position that children would occupy with that of sex orgies. I do not see either on a purely theoretical, philosophical, rational or logical manner why such children should attract our sympathy more than the 18 year old naive girl or boy who simply made a mistake. Are we all the sudden putting life on a hierarchical scale?

But of course with all the mighty brains that might lurk these pages, such matters deserve no consideration. Down voting is much easier, than inquiring, counter arguing, suggesting alternative views. It is simply easier to censor dissenting views which one hardly understands than put one self in that child like curious position of wishing to learn such as asking well why must it not be like this, well why do you think so.

I personally know my opinions, I know my thoughts, I know my reasoning and perception. That is not why I frequent these pages. I come here to learn of other's rational reasoning, to learn of the way others rationally perceive things, to be in that cutting edge, where reason and logic reigns supreme, where emotions is not taken in consideration, where one discusses rather than asserts their authority, where the community discusses in the free spirit of reason.

We have a great thing here. It currently is outside of the mainstream eyes, yet influences the "opinion makers" for the opinion makers are people of our intelligence. Yet, this is becoming a community of assertions, a community where are found those fallacies men of intelligence know to guard, such as marketers cheating the system, in uniform, each of them starting their title with Why is this so, not quite asking, instead, following it with their opinions, opinions which I have to guard against calling them bluff due to their physical presence in the community. Their vocal and crowd reputation might be free to set the agenda and culture, and challenge us to keep it so free, keep it so unguarded, argue against any cultural impositions.

I have used this net thing since Google was born. There is often birth and death. PG foresaw this day, and this day is here. A great shame and loss for in these pages the mighty and brilliant are contained. yet the might of PG could not withstand the fortunes of nature, or maybe, just maybe, PG made grave mistakes, for man is chaotic, and if man wishes reason, man devises a system, a system which is utterly lacking in these pages, where irrationality most certainly must rain supreme, unless rational men act to tame it.

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#49
post #42
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should perhaps be my last comment on this. On your first point. I was a student and during that time I had access to all the papers I needed, sufficient papers to get the top grades. Second, I do not know what profession you are in, computer science is very different from medicine. To start with, the latter requires actual physical stuff, you know, people you can experiment with, or monkeys, and substances, like…

>On your first point. I was a student and during that time I had access to all the papers I needed, sufficent papers to get the top grades. Where did you go to school? From my experience yours is most atypical. I don't sell applications. I configure and make slight modifications to free applications, or applications my employer pays for (and in my experience the ones that charge have negative value from my perspectiv…

"But yes, reason has little purchase in this place. The community has very strong biases and refuses to give time to opposition."

What exactly do you mean?

Re: Protein that destroys HIV discovered

#50
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no school subscribes to all journals a student might want. I went to a crappy (but huge) state university and they did indeed subscribe to ALL of the journals. My family has a good number of academics and this seems to be the case at any large university, regardless of quality.

I went to a ~3000 student private liberal arts college and we subscribed to a handful. 90% of what I needed was out of reach. I suspect there are some economies of scale, but those economies are completely artificial; there's no reason the per-student rate should be different for a small college than a large one. Well, I suppose there is one: most of the cost is administrative overhead in actually collecting the bill…

What you needed, not the students.
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