Second HIV patient reportedly cured after bone marrow transplant

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/05/second-hiv-patient-reportedly.html

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You may have heard of the Chinese babies that were having experimental knockout of that particular gene.

No, not really. Is that a thing? What a waste. Geneering babies to be AIDS-proof is such a misuse of the technology, when you could give them powers of flight, or invisibility, or pyrokinesis.

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I would trade all three for superhuman speed. :thinking:

“We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.”
Roald Dahl

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Damn! We may crack this yet.

The CRISPR twins have the power not to get soggy when ■■■■■!

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The operation is so arduous, and HIV-resistant doners so dare

typo klaxon :slight_smile:

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space-ghost-why-not-001

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For those of you who might not know about the link between the Plagues and AIDS. It mentions CCR5 too.

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Hmmmm…

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I’m sure the patients are hugely relieved to be free of both cancer and HIV, but I wonder how the impact of a bone marrow transplant and the immunosuppressants, etc. impact life expectancy versus a life-long regimen of anti-virals. I’m wondering if the cure is worse than having HIV alone.

Probably not this way, though. This is a very dangerous treatment that was only done because the patients had cancer that required a bone marrow transplant. The HIV cure was a side-effect. It’s now happened with only two patients - two out of many who underwent the treatments. The others either died (of the cancer or the treatment itself, which almost killed the previously cured patient) or didn’t get cured. So not a great success rate.

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There may be a less dangerous way to get the same effect. We can only hope.

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yes - I think that is the point - now they are looking into the mechanism at a cellular level. It does not mean it will require a bone marrow transplant to convey the immunity.

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Ah, the old problem of not being able to type “M0ist”…

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Invisibility is an impractical superpower unless your profession is as a thief or a spy, and even then the use is rather limited.

Chevy Chase’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man did a really good job on elucidating on the reasons why.

Fully controlled at-will teleportation for the win; especially if we’re talking about in this reality that we currently inhabit.

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Two second commute? Yes please!

ETA: also works for thieves and superspies.

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We just need to build transporters…

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Exactly; without having to run around naked and barefoot all the time, and without the great risk of having people or vehicles ram right into you at full speed, because they can’t see you.

That’s the catch, though; I don’t trust man-made science to do it - I saw the remake of The Fly.

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I keep forgetting we might not be in the star trek timeline… Although IN the star trek time line, humanity doesn’t get it’s shit together for another 100 or 150 years… meaning that even if we’re in the star trek timeline, we have a couple of terrible wars before we get warp engines, much less transporters and replicators… Everyone’s favorite simple tailor Garak probably sums it up best…

garak-hope-best

ds9-garak-expect-worst

And humanity delivers the worst in droves sometimes…

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I always liked Garak best.

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He was the best… especially on this episode (In the Pale Moonlight, I think it was called)…

garak-sisko-seems-angry

Part of what made DS9 so great was the supporting cast, who tended to be just as great as the main cast. Not just Garak, but Gul Dukat and Weyoun, too.

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