New AIDS Drug

[XnavxeMiyyep]

http://www.physorg.com/news86960302.html

Drug that seems to have a great success rate for treating AIDS. Could be great news for many people.

 

[angelneo]

The drug essentially prevents the virus' DNA from integrating with a host's cells, inhibiting its ability to replicate itself.

Does it mean that this drug can stop AIDS from spreading in the body? and effectively stopping AIDS?

 

[Metatron]

Good to hear, now get cancer and heart disease....

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Does it mean that this drug can stop AIDS from spreading in the body? and effectively stopping AIDS?

The article says it stops the virus' DNA from integrating with host cells. It's therefore not necessarily killing the virus directly. How long the virus can live, or even remain dormant, without using host cells to reproduce would be the key factor here. If it suppresses the virus until it dies off, that would be a cure. But I think it would be much bigger news if that was the case, so I'd say that the virus would probably reappear after a patient stopped taking the drug.

I'm only halfway through an immunology unit at school at the moment, so this reasoning could be completely off.

 

[Abstract]

Yeah, that makes sense to me: If the virii DNA can't use a host cell for reproduction, I guess its only options are to lay dormant, or just disappear. However, reducing the AIDS virus to "undetectable levels" doesn't imply that it's entirely gone, so the minute proportion of virus that survives this drug will still reproduce once you stop taking the drug.

That, or the virus lays dormant and waits until the patient stops taking the drug. If he/she doesn't stop, then the drug will work and the patient won't suffer from AIDS.

 

[angelneo]

The article says it stops the virus' DNA from integrating with host cells. It's therefore not necessarily killing the virus directly. How long the virus can live, or even remain dormant, without using host cells to reproduce would be the key factor here. If it suppresses the virus until it dies off, that would be a cure. But I think it would be much bigger news if that was the case, so I'd say that the virus would probably reappear after a patient stopped taking the drug.

I'm only halfway through an immunology unit at school at the moment, so this reasoning could be completely off.

I think this would be most likely the case, or else they would be calling for press conference, and CNN, Time, Reuters etc would be reporting it as well.

 

[jimN]

Time to buy shares in Merck & Co then. What you need to see is the paper where they report their results and not the press release that the drug company sends out.

Drug reporting is not a case of journalists reading medical and pharmaceutical journals and deriving what they can from papers but rather them re-hashing what the companies send out to them.

The article certainly seems very hopeful but medical history is full of apparent wonder drugs that subsequently became class actions. This needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt until further (non drug company funded) trials are undertaken. It doesn't compare their results to current best therapy and give that HIV and AIDS management is actually pretty good at present that would be nice to know.

Sorry to be so down on this but with medical research you always need to think what is actually being said and who is being paid (and by whom) to say it.

 

[MOFS]

Time to buy shares in Merck & Co then. What you need to see is the paper where they report their results and not the press release that the drug company sends out.

Drug reporting is not a case of journalists reading medical and pharmaceutical journals and deriving what they can from papers but rather them re-hashing what the companies send out to them.

The article certainly seems very hopeful but medical history is full of apparent wonder drugs that subsequently became class actions. This needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt until further (non drug company funded) trials are undertaken. It doesn't compare their results to current best therapy and give that HIV and AIDS management is actually pretty good at present that would be nice to know.

Sorry to be so down on this but with medical research you always need to think what is actually being said and who is being paid (and by whom) to say it.

Yeah. Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatments (HAART) are quite effective and many patients live with HIV for many years. THe question is whether this new drug is significantly better than the older ones - or cheaper...