Bone marrow 'cures Aids patient'

[cecilia]

Doctors in Germany say a patient appears to have been cured of Aids by a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a genetic resistance to HIV.

The researchers in Berlin said the man, who suffered from leukaemia and Aids, had shown no sign of either disease since the transplant two years ago.

The result is expected to encourage further interest in gene therapy as a treatment for Aids.

So far all efforts to find a cure have been unsuccessful.

Genetic mutation

Berlin's Charite hospital said the 42-year-old patient was an American living in Berlin who has not been identified.

He had been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes Aids for more than a decade and also had leukaemia.

The clinic said since the transplant, tests on his bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues have all been clean.

"More than 20 months after the successful transplant, no HIV can be detected in the patient," the clinic said in a statement.

But leading HIV researcher, Dr Andrew Badley, of the Mayo Clinic in the American state of Minnesota, has warned a lot more tests are needed to prove the man is clear of HIV.

Roughly one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have an inherited genetic mutation, which prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells.

Two million people die of Aids every year and the virus is estimated to have infected 33 million people worldwide.
Credit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7726118.stm

^if it's true. will be an amazing medical breakthrough --

 

[lady0fdarkness]

I hope it's true.... it will give millions of people a new hope.

 

[noungning]

wow, that's interesting. it will definitely be something for sure...but isn't that life... we look so hard for a solution and get nothing... but yet we get things we weren't actually looking for by accident.

 

[judyp]

wow, that's interesting. it will definitely be something for sure...but isn't that life... we look so hard for a solution and get nothing... but yet we get things we weren't actually looking for by accident.

soo true! but yeah, this would be a HUGE breakthrough.

 

[genkers]

even if its true isn't it hard to get a bone marrow transplant? i don't mean hard as in hard to do but hard as in to find a match or am i thinking of something else????

 

[cecilia]

^didn't they specify a type of marrow? ..
that only a few ppl have it b/c it's rare.
Some ppl are born with these genes/marrow.

dang, i want to be one of them lucky one, to be the 'possible' savor by giving them a little of it ..

btw. does bone marrow grow back?

 

[noungning]

i'm not sure, but they do have donors for that...

 

[*Ice*]

umm how do i explain this lol bone marrow wont grow back if your sick but having chemotherapy can kill it off too but when you have had a blood donor and if you can find one coz its meant to be hard to find someone who is compatible there is like 6 things that you must be compatible with the same person which is hard but it might be different in other countries after a donor it should grow back properly i dont know a lot of it right now we only just studied bone marrow in class last week aha i guess only some people with aids deserve to be cured like the children if it was pass on through parents and people who got raped some people know they have it and still do it with others then infect them or they go around using drugs... some people just look for trouble.. ill find out more about bone marrow stuff monday at skool

 

[cecilia]

^haha. playing god. saving only those that deserve

 

[*Ice*]

^haha. playing god. saving only those that deserve

im serious about that some people just bring it on themselves and expect sympothy about it like for example using drugs... i dno unportected xxx when they know they got it and then they pass it on to the poor kid people like that peeeee me off its a different case tho if someone was raped or somewhat injected with the disease or born with it i aint bein mean or anything yall kno its just common sense to do these things it aint nice to kno if ur got aid or somethin init.. id be really sad if i got it becoz of someone or something... ma friend killed himself becoz he caught aids doing a good deed ... cleaning up rubbish on a beach and he stood on an infected needle...

 

[cecilia]

^yes. i understand where you stood. i too want to help those that will help bring good things to the earth only.
the one that get themselves into things when they know they shouldn't .. should just stay like that with no help. but a little part in me keep saying that.
'maybe they've learned their lesson b/c they been through this and will not look at xxx as a fun and game thing, so it doesn't hurt to help them'
however, i believe in FIRST COME FIRST SERVE --- they're the least to be consider on the list so yup, playing god sorta apply to this ideology.

 

[fun]

umm how do i explain this lol bone marrow wont grow back if your sick but having chemotherapy can kill it off too but when you have had a blood donor and if you can find one coz its meant to be hard to find someone who is compatible there is like 6 things that you must be compatible with the same person which is hard but it might be different in other countries after a donor it should grow back properly i dont know a lot of it right now we only just studied bone marrow in class last week aha i guess only some people with aids deserve to be cured like the children if it was pass on through parents and people who got raped some people know they have it and still do it with others then infect them or they go around using drugs... some people just look for trouble.. ill find out more about bone marrow stuff monday at skool

Great mind thinks alike. LMAO I was just going to mention that only those that deserve it.

 

[*Ice*]

haha yeah i kno but im wondering if it is true and that will it only be avilable if u pay for it maybe yall kno some pills r free some arnt bcoz they cost a lot of money yall kno i dno the systems in USA i just kno the thai and UK systems

 

[noungning]

if it's true... i'm sure they'd try to clone/duplicate that specific marrow in order to conduct further testing... and if it is going to be available... it'd take a long long long time and massive funding. nothing is ever free, regardless of where u are

 

[jeanie]

It's called the Delta-32 mutation. It also confers resistance to the Black Plague and that's how they discovered it. If it works and I'm doubtful, it'd be very difficult to rely on it as a treatment method. The odds that you'd have both a bone marrow match and that person who matches you also have this mutation? I bet you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning 3 times or something. So it's not totally about money. I mean you could have Bill Gates money but that doesn't mean a person with this mutation and matches your HLA will exist out there.