Designer Enzyme Cuts HIV Out of Infected Cells

[LeftHander]

Source: Scientific American

Scientists have constructed a custom enzyme that reverses the process by which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) inserts its genetic material into host DNA, suggesting that treatment with similar enzymes could potentially rid infected cells of the virus. In tests on cultured human tissue, the mutated enzyme, Tre recombinase, snipped HIV DNA out of chromosomes.

Read more: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=737AB56E-E7F2-99DF-382B756D1860EACA&chanID=sa003

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SOunds interesting. May have been posted already.

[DixieBlue]

1. Holy Cow.

If this really turns out to work and they can figure out a way to make HIV show itself this could be a very big deal, indeed.

HIV is such a scary, tricky virus. This is really good news.

[ananda]

2. Since it sounds like a cure to me..

and probably is a cure, then I'd expect
nothing to happen in the near future.

That's the way this fucking country is right now.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. That's what I was going to say....

Too much money being made on HIV drugs.

And if they do offer it, they'll make it so godawful expensive that no normal person could afford it. Fuckers.

fsc

[ClintonTyree]

9. Even if it is a cure....

it will be INSANELY expensive (the drug companies will make sure of that) and won't be economically available to most who need it. The free market and all that, you know? :eyes: Corporate profits are are paramount. :grr:

[LeftHander]

31. They can grow the enzyme in bacteria...

Bacteria is pretty easy to grow...I do it all the time in my refrigerator without even trying...

[TechBear_Seattle]

41. Unfortunately, this country allows for labs to patent genetic sequences

Thus, the enzyme is legally protected. Any efforts towards "unlicensed reproduction" will result in very stiff legal penalties and very likely jail time. Anyone who is able to independently replicate the work will have to prove that it is, in fact, an independent replication as opposed to theft of copyright material, which will be extremely difficult to prove. (Prove that none of the dozens of people in your lab team looked at, referenced, was told about by a third party or otherwise came in contact with the documents obtainable from the U.S. Patent Office.)

[TZ]

44. even with patenting these genetic sequences....or enzymes.

they are pretty easy to get. It sounds alot like the primer sequences/restriction enzymes that are manufactured and sold for PCR use. I worked for a company that manufactured stuff like that. It would be nice if they didn't patent them, but that won't make it hard to get, or even necessarily that pricey. It would still be less pricey than the drug cocktails most likely

[lurky]

4. Amazing!

Has anything like this ever been done before? This sounds like a pretty radical step, since they would actually be altering the patient's chromosomes. It seems like if something went wrong with the medication, the consequences could be drastic.

[kestrel91316]

5. In vitro is one thing. In vivo is another thing entirely.

[Vogon_Glory]

6. If Big Pharma Won't Let It Be Made in the Developed World, Then

If Big Pharma won't let the enzyme be made in the developed world, then I hope some world citizen will ship the specifications for the process off to Cuba and let them have a go with it there!

[Vidar]

50. India is pretty g pretty ggod candidate as well, & Bush won't

threaten to nuke them for obvious reasons.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. I wonder what the anti-GM people are going to say.

Well, not really.

[LeftHander]

30. Good point....

As one against GM foods I find this development most interesting.

First the enzyme would need to work only on the effected cells and target DNA...in the lab is one thing in a human body another. One thing to keep in mind is that the hiding HIV DNA when it activates it kills the host T-Cells as it uses the cell as the building blocks to replicate itself...the result is another step to death. As T-Cells disappear the ability to withstand infection goes with. The best treatments now help keep the virus in a dormant state and to keep the body strong to prevent infection occurring by an already damaged immune system. (my understanding anyway)

The concept that treatment would remove the dormant HIV DNA is so spectacular and amazingly elegant (as described in the article) it boggles the mind. Before the treatments have focused on preventing the HIV Virus from infecting by blocking the receptors it attaches to and to help the immune system fight it by pointing out what it is..HIV has a way of tricking the immune system into ignoring it and finding new cellular receptors to attach to.

The idea as I read is to not look for the DNA but to find it and remove it based on where it is not. Viral DNA spliced into host cell DNA must leave some sort of trail it seems they may have found this trail and are reversing the process. I remember reading about this many years ago that people were trying to understand the mechanism of how HIV DNA is spliced into host cell DNA. This was at the time when were just discovering the techniques around recombinant DNA technology "gene splicing".

When you add up all that can be gained in ridding the world of HIV-AIDS...it seems worth the risk to learn more and push the envelope, more than ever we need openness, reason and truth to guide us.

There certainly will be moral and ethical questions and some will see it as a opportunity to distribute more false information and to prop up ideologies that support the neo-conservatives. People will spread fear and create division again and much of it will based on propaganda and lies because simply put...this world is still filled with lots of people who want to see gay people die and care little if non-white people suffer.

[trashcanistanista]

40. This sounds like a remarkable discovery

In vivo, I would imagine it would target the viral DNA disrupt it, retranscribe it out of the patient's DNA and it would die off as it needs the host to replicate. It would most likely kill the Tcells anyway, but that is what most chemotherapies do in cancer patients. The patient would have to be closely monitored and kept under sterile circumstances until they produced new T cells which can happen in a matter of days. This could be a cure.

[LaurenG]

8. Excellent news!

Finally, finally...:bounce:

[Erebus67]

10. Could be the answer to a lot of prayers

But so far it's only been used in human TISSUE. How will it react in a living human being is the question. Sounds promising though. And it's the first thing I have heard of that is a potential cure.

Wonder if that enzyme could be adapted to attack cancer?

There is alot of money being made on treatment. Cures don't bring the patient/customer back over and over for more and more drugs. Of coarse now that it's public at least we can keep rattling their cage over it.

[1776Forever]

11. Thank you for the link and news! This is wonderful news!

It will give many hope for the first time that something can be done.

[Divine Discontent]

42. I agree

this is fantastic news. they best not cover this up, also, couldn't this be used to treat ALL immuno deficiency in cells???

www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<<--- top 08 items and antibush stuff!

[shadowknows69]

12. I'll stow the cynicism for now and just say AWESOME!!!!

:bounce:

[WindRavenX]

13. "snipped HIV DNA out of chromosomes"

!!!

:wow:

[shadowknows69]

15. Yeah no shit

The doktors are the smart peeple. I'd trade ten of the quacks I've been seeing for one of them.

[truthisfreedom]

14. Excellent. Now I want to know who the idiot was that thought Sciam.com would be a good name for

Scientific American. A creationist mole?

[knight_of_the_star]

16. Damn

That is truly impressive, still I wonder if there's any unforseen side effects. Something that potent might have some kind of drawback that should be tested for before general release considering the FDA is more interested in grease on the wheels than genuine tests half the time.

[xxqqqzme]

17. Have to find out how this is linked to US Big pharma - if it is

'...researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the University of Hamburg's Heinrich Pette Institute for Experimental Virology and Immunology'...

[lizerdbits]

18. Sounds great but I'm not holding my breath

"The results are promising, he says, but researchers have to make sure the slow-acting Tre enzyme works on real-world strains of HIV and figure out how to safely and precisely administer it in gene form to give it time to snip."

They added nucleotides on the ends of the virus so the enzyme would cleave at those sites. I get Science magazine so it will be interesting to read the details.

[mconvente]

19. This technology is not new, btw.

"snipped HIV DNA out of chromosomes."

That's the action - correctly using the word "snipped" - of enzymes known as Restriction Enzymes

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

In non-scientific jargon, restriction enzymes enable micro-organisms like bacteria to ward off attack from viruses. A virus population increases by injecting its RNA/DNA into a host bacteria. Then the virus RNA/DNA is copied several to many times and then is released from the bacteria (which bursts and dies). However, RNA/DNA can't copy correctly if it's cut, so bacteria's defense system involves these Restriction Enzymes which recognize specific sequences of A's, T's, C's, and G's (genetic nitrogen bases that make DNA) and cut the DNA there.

So, if the HIV virus DNA is cut into pieces, then it won't be transcribed; if it's cut entirely out of a chromosome, then it's still intact, so I guess it can still be transcribed but maybe not?

Anyways, it's a great find/creation of this enzyme and hopefully it can work full time!

[cullen2382]

20. How wonderful

I hope it turns out to be as promising as it sounds

[Conscious Confucius]

21. Watch the right wingers use this to argue against universal healthcare.

As the money needed for this innovative technological research wouldn't be available with universal healthcare. Right? Yeaaah.

[KamaAina]

23. Bah! This innovative technological research comes from Germany!

which is a lot closer to a universal system than we are, so there! :P

[Conscious Confucius]

27. But we're a lot closer to fascism than Germany ever was.

American scientists, just by being American alone, are far superior. They therefore need much more money... to advertise depression pills during daily soap operas.

[entanglement]

52. And it's from the independent, non-profit,state-funded Max-Planck Gesellschaft

That should explode freeper heads :P

[Duer 157099]

22. This is one of those scary two-edged swords

Obviously I can see the benefit in cases like HIV infection.

But consider where this will lead... scientists will experiment with customizing such enzymes to cut out *other* snippets of DNA -- sure, at first they will be disease related. Then, they might use it to remove "undesirable" genes... and so on, down that slippery slope.

Nothing to be done about it, just noting it. Scientific advances cannot be stopped, nor should they. What we need is a sufficiently evolved species to manage it.

[enki23]

24. i know! imagine being able to "cut out" pieces of DNA...

:eyes:

listen, folks. this is not new technology. this is very, very, very far from being practical in vivo. notice, they're talking about gene therapy here. remember how well we've gotten that to work, and that's been with some conditions which should be relatively *easy* to treat with gene therapy. this would almost certainly not be easy. and, for the record, there's nothing magical about being to cut out portions of DNA. the Cre-Lox recombination system in particular (which is considerably more interesting than just "cutting out" pieces of DNA) has been around since the 1980's (patented by DuPont, in case any conspiracy minded folks want more to yammer about).

[mconvente]

28. Well, this is the current technology of genetic engineering

It's exactly how scientists add disease-resistant genes to crops and such - cut and insert.

See post #19 for a link to the Wikipedia article on these types of enzymes.

[whistle]

36. If it has the potential to benefit mankind shrub* will veto it, if it works

....in a way to be used as WMD, BushCo and the neocons will support it. That slippery slope is always there with any scientific breakthrough, the problem is one of ethics and morality.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

25. viewed like that all science is a slippery slope.

[LeftHander]

26. The recent report on "creating life" with DNA is a redirect...

By the MSM to shift attention away from this report of HIV-AIDS progress...

For many Gay haters out there HIV-AIDS is the next best thing since slided-bread.

True thoguh about the double edged nature of this break through. Unfortunatly under Bush and the decline of the MSM HIV-AIDS epidemic is horribly underreported. The devastation in undeveloped countries has shifted the right wings perception of HIV-AIDS from one of a "gay" issue to one of a "black" thing. And we all know how much the extreme right wing likes non-white people...

[Odin2005]

29. This is awesome.

Not only are we closer to a AIDS cure, this will help with perfecting things like gene therapy (getting rid of genetically-based diseases) and eventually outright genetic engineering of ourselves. It's an exciting time for a Biotech major like myself to be alive!

:woohoo:

[TZ]

32. Interesting use of restriction enzymes

But given how easily HIV can adapt and mutate, it might not be an easy fix all. But it is promising. And there is alot of other exciting HIV work going on. There are at least 2 vaccines in Stage 2 clinical trials that show promise as well. I think that its very possible that in the near future a combination of vaccination and this kind of treatment is going to make HIV much less prevalent than it is today.

[derby378]

33. We asked for a cure - we got an enzyme that thinks it's Pac-Man

If little Pac-Man can get the job done, though, let's put it to work. We are long overdue for some good news on this front.

[BlueEyedSon]

34. People are going to be boinking in the street when this is available

:)

[whistle]

35. That would be great if it works....then the CIA and neocons will have to

...devise another method for spreading a world pandemic to reduce global population to their goal of 500,000,000 persons, just like it was during the middle ages after the plagues.

[Orrex]

38. Yowza!

:tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat:

[racaulk]

37. You should crosspost this over in the HIV/AIDS Support Group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=391

What a great find! The science, although quite a bit over my head, sounds very impressive and promising. Hopefully, this means we're one big step closer to a cure! :)

[krj44]

39. its done by german

scientists,so they will probably disallow it.

[Divine Discontent]

43. K&R #20 for good reason

drum this up folks, we need this talked about so they (MSM & corporate whores) don't sweep the news away thinking mainstream America didn't know of this good news

[orleans]

45. and of course none of our fucking drug companies could afford to

do this type of research (and probably none of the universities either since they get a lot of their money from the fucking drug companies)

"researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the University of Hamburg's Heinrich Pette Institute for Experimental Virology and Immunology"

yeah, we wouldn't have the audacity to actually try to cure anyone here, would we? i mean, really--where's the money in that?


and as for the flipside: how wonderful someone has discovered this!

[TZ]

48. actually

there has always been alot of research with HIV in Europe (France in particular).
AND there is plenty of work going on in this country. There are some companies that have HIV vaccines in Stage 2 clinical trials which is about halfway along. I suspect we will see a vaccine before this new breakthrough is workable.
There is also a whole segment of NIH-NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease) that is solely devoted to HIV/AIDS and they also provide government contracts to help fund research to Pharmaceuticals and Biotechs. Just because you don't hear about the research in the MSM that often does not mean its not going on. In this country some of the most efficient research collaborations going on in medical research are government/private collaborations.

[xchrom]

46. very cool.

i hope this moves down -- or up -- the experimental ladder quickly so we can determine if this is an effective treatment.

[Prophet 451]

47. Holy shit!

Is this a cure? This sounds like a cure.

[TZ]

49. It has the potential to be I suppose if you can catch it early enough

I would call it a promising treatment, more than a cure though. And I wonder if they have the sequences for different strains. HIV is a very sneaky virus and VERY adaptable. It could possibly alter its code enough to adapt to avoid this in the way bacteria can become drug resistant. I suspect when they get this perfected, they will have to be very careful in the application to avoid a situation like that.

[entanglement]

51. Congratulations to Max Planck & U Hamburg - meanwhile we'll stick to penis enlargement research...