NEWS: Rare Drug-Resistant HIV Found in N.Y.

A rare strain of HIV has been discovered in New York. It is the only known case in the world. What makes this strain unique is that, not only is it resistant to three drug regimens, the course of infection to AIDS is measured in months, not years or decades.



I have been saying to anyone who will listen to me that HIV is the "smartest" virus ever known, in that it mutates so rapidly and, seemingly so specifically, and that efforts to eradicate it seem to have only one effect --to expedite mutation. That's why I feel that throwing money at the epidemic in Africa is a monumental waste. The only way known to control this virus is to alter behavior. Drug cocktails that cost tens of thousands of dollars per year are only hastening the mutation of the virus. I don't mean to sound cold, but it seems that the only way to conquer AIDS is to get everyone who doesn't have it to alter their behavior to reduce the likelihood of infection to nearly nil (nothing is absolute) and for those who have it to die, not murdered, but allowed to live out their days without extreme intervention.


[edit on 05/2/15 by GradyPhilpott]

I disagree with one thing Grady, Drug cocktails if taken as prescribed will not hasten mutation. Its those that miss doses etc that breed these super variants. Thats why you are starting to see drug resistant TB, Staph, EColi and the like crop up in increasing amounts. This is only the beginning.

You're a nurse, Fred, and I'm a Social Worker, so I'm obviously outgunned here, but the infections you named are bacteria and HIV is a virus. The HIV virus seems to respond with specificity to interventions by mutating, as opposed to resistant strains being left to reproduce, as is the case with insects and bacteria.

For example:

HIV is notorious for its ability to change, or mutate, and thereby evade the effects of drugs. Many drugs used to treat HIV interfere with the virus' reverse transcriptase (RT) enzyme, slowing the viral growth rate. Mutations in HIV's RT gene produce an RT enzyme uninhibited by the drugs, allowing the virus to begin growing again.

These mutations result in the exchange of one of RT's many amino-acid building blocks for another. Because such mutations typically enable the virus to resist only one specific RT-inhibiting drug, the patient can still take other RT inhibitors.

mednews.stanford.edu...

[edit on 05/2/11 by GradyPhilpott]

Well we know that many diseases has become immune to treatments, I think that they are becoming smarter.

My daughter is doing now her major and one of her classes is infectious diseases, she said that the problem with HIV is that is one of the fastest mutating virus.

Now she said that they have not heard anything yet in class about this new resistant case but she will ask on Monday, she is sure that it will become the topic as soon as it becomes known.

[edit on 11-2-2005 by marg6043]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
You're a nurse, Fred, and I'm a Social Worker, so I'm obviously outgunned here, but the infections you named are bacteria and HIV is a virus.

No, pediatric AIDS is few and far between these days so I am far from an expert on this subject Grady. But I do believe that poor medication habbits in people recieving the cocktail caused the mutations.

I'm looking into the matter, now, and I edited my last post with some data. I will post some more info on HIV mutation, if I find more.

Fred

Here is an article published in December that illustrates just what I mean. In the world of organisms and bacteria, mutant strains come and go perhaps without much notice. Bad mutations may die out and good mutations may have to wait for some mutation in another species or some other disaster to ever be known. Cockroaches become immune to insecticides because only the immune cockroaches are left to reproduce and someone has to come up with a better insecticide.

This article tells how a strain of HIV has arisen that requires an HIV drug to replicate. I have never heard of a cockroach that needs diazinon to reproduce.

HIV mutation depends on Fuzeon for replication

Last Updated: 2004-12-02 15:36:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In an HIV-infected patient undergoing treatment with the fusion inhibitor T20 (enfuvirtide; Fuzeon), researchers have documented the development of HIV resistance mutations that actually depend on T20 for replication.

In the November issue of the Journal of Virology, Dr. Chris E. Baldwin of the University of Amsterdam and colleagues performed a genetic analysis on the entire HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein 41 ectodomain from a patient who failed T20 therapy.

The investigators discovered T20 resistance mutations in both the HR1 and HR2 domains of the envelope glycoprotein. "Surprisingly," the authors report, "we demonstrate that an HR1-HR2 double mutant (GIA-SKY), which dominates the viral populations after 32 weeks of therapy, is not only highly resistant to T20 but also critically dependent on the T20 peptide for its replication."

The researchers propose several mechanisms for T20-dependent viral entry. The most likely explanation for the T20-dependent mutant, they believe, is that it is "more prone to undergo the conformational switch that results in the formation of the fusogenic six-helix bundle structure in the envelope glycoprotein 41."

[edit on 05/2/11 by GradyPhilpott]

The statement by the commissioner on a wake up call to homosexual men should avoid the same problems that arose when hiv/aids was spreading in the 80s. Should be a wake up call to everybody to know your partner and wear protection. I know that it is nit-picking but people will assume that the problem doesn't affect them.

Grady, there may be waste in the aids crisis in Africa but aids/hiv education is detrimental to stopping the spread. I do agree altering behavior will help but that comes through education. The money isn’t a waste.

Although not feasible, would be great if the world stopped for the day and got tested. A great fear of mine is that hiv will become airborne and spread via airport infrastructure. If that strain wasn’t aggressive people wouldn’t know they were infected till long after.

*EDIT*change my wording

[edit on 2/11/2005 by swintersVT]

Originally posted by swintersVT
A great fear of mine is that hiv will become airborne and spread via airport infrastructure.

Funny you should mention that. Here is an article explaining how such a thing might actually happen.

"If HIV underwent all the necessary changes allowing it to infect through aerosolized droplets, he [Howard M. Temin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison] asserted, "then we might have a virus that could spread by a respiratory route, but it would no longer cause AIDS. So it would be worse in the sense that it might be more contagious, but it might just be another cold virus."

"I don't share your confidence about what can and cannot happen," Lederberg replied. Blood-borne HIV commonly infects macrophages, a kind of white blood cell often present in the lungs, he noted. Even a minor mutation might enable HIV to infect those cells directly via the respiratory tract.

Temin shook his head. Anything may happen in the future, he conceded, but "you don't have to stay up nigths worrying about it."

Replied Lederberg, somewhat ominously: "I'm glad I worry enough for both of us, Howard."

www.findarticles.com...

[edit on 05/2/11 by GradyPhilpott]

Seems that women who have sex with men would be just as likely to get it as "men who have sex with other men" (Frieden)... Sorry to nitpick, that one excerpt just stood out as sounding incredibly dated. Last I heard, men are less likely to contract the virus from a woman than a man, but the reverse covers equal ground. I doubt this strain of HIV is somehow more discriminate.

Looks like duh squared and I are on the same train of thought...



*Added* Grady interesting read on the airborne transmission. Hopefully, we never have to find out.

[edit on 2/11/2005 by swintersVT]

Some women have been known to have unprotected vaginal intercourse with their infected partners for years without getting infected. I don't think anyone knows why. As vaginal intercourse between two men is impossible, the likelihood of infection from two men having unprotected intercourse would be higher. I don't believe that I have ever heard anyone suggest that anal intercourse is safer for heterosexuals than for homosexuals. This is not to suggest that unprotected heterosexual activity of any kind is safe.

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FYI - A few articles to consider re: the appearance of this new form of AIDS.

[Note: Infectious prions are proteins - and capable of infecting viruses, bacteria and other microbes, not just animals.]


This 1986 paper describes how "proteinaceous capsids" (prions) use viruses as vehicles of transmission...
* "Viral influences on aflatoxin formation by Aspergillus flavus." Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 24:248-252. Schmidt FR, Lemke PA, Esser K (1986)


"Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats … ...It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms."
* Med Hypotheses. 1999 Aug;53(2):91-102. Is the pathogen of prion disease a microbial protein? Fuzi M. Budapest Institute of National Public Health and Medical Officer Service, Hungary. PMID: 10532698


* Dangerous liaisons between a microbe and the prion protein. J Exp Med. 2003 Jul 7;198(1):1-4. Aguzzi A, Hardt WD. PMID: 12847133

The Spongifrom Encephalopathy (SE) is a lesion, described for the human beings in the Creutzfeldt Jacob disease (CJD), the Gerstmann-Straüssler-Scheinker syndrome, the fatal familial insomnia, the Kuru, and for the animals, particularly in the frame of the epidemy of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), responsible for the actual crisis of mad cow. The pathologic form of prion (mutated form) would be the causal agent of these SE (SB. Prusiner, 1981). Other authors (L. Manuelidis, 1995) have suggested that a retrovirus (not yet identified) could intervene as a causal agent.

SE lesions have been described on histological sections from the brain of a patient suffering from AIDS dementia (J. Schwenk, 1987). These lesions have been since described (J. Artigas, 1989) for 5 other HIV+ patients. However, a publication recently reported 67 cases of SE on 200 autopsies of patients dead of AIDS (AJ Martinez et coll., Path. Res. Pract. 191, 427-443, 1995).

This lesion appears not to be an epiphenomenon, but maybe a major component of AIDS.

Mad Cow Lesions in AIDS

"According to a study from France, "...the human PrPc was shown to possess nucleic acid binding and chaperoning properties similar to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) nucleocapsid protein, a key viral factor in virus structure and replication. These findings prompted us to determine if PrPc could influence HIV-1 replication." "
J Mol Biol. 2004 Apr 2;337(4):1035-51. "Analysis of the interactions between HIV-1 and the cellular prion protein in a human cell line"

[S52.008] Detection of Prion Amyloid Deposits In Vivo
Category - Infections/AIDS/Prion diseases



Barring the door to HIV: The prion propagates Host-virus battle
(This article available free to registered subscribers)


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Soficrow

It is obvious you have more than a passing interest in prions. Would you be so kind as to tell us a little about yourself and how this interest began?

[edit on 05/2/12 by GradyPhilpott]

Grady, Sofi is on to something here. Prions were most likely the original crossover source for SIV into HIV. When the Stanleyville (congo) experiments with the CHAT polio vaccine were conducted in 1956-60, very large amounts of Chimp blood were used on Chimp kidney tissue to "reproduce" the sterile source vaccine into the 1,000,000 doeses needed for the test. The "soup" used to replicate the vaccine was most likely contaminated with prions. Prions are present in all blood and are not "attacked" by the immune system. They can be "co-opted" by a virus and the protein used to replicate the original virus. Thus making the virus highly resisitant to the immune system. Hence HIV was formed from SIV.

Blood products have long been a source of HIV. Researchers are only now making the connection between Prions and many, many diseases. There is much data on this subject in Sofi's recent trheads that appear in her Sig. I would encourage all to read. I also have a few threads on the subject.

Prions ARE the missing link.............

I'm not disagreeing with Soficrow. I just would like to know how this came to be such an interest for him and whether or not he works in a field that puts him in a position to have such an well-organized overview of the problem and a generally pessimistic view of all things prion.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I'm not disagreeing with Soficrow. I just would like to know how this came to be such an interest for him and whether or not he works in a field that puts him in a position to have such an well-organized overview of the problem and a generally pessimistic view of all things prion.

Hey, leatherneck, the more you research prions, the more you become pessimistic. I've been working on a way to kill them for years. Ebola is easier to kill. It's like a "hidden" epidemic already.

Ozone therapy combined with strict diet, exercise, rest, and nutritional supplements is worth trying.
The ozone must be medical grade, and it is likely most effectively administered via steambath sessions of 1/2 hour once or twice daily.
the heat and steam expedites and increases the absorption of the Ozone into the endocrine system, where it can assist the bodies healing abilities.

Why don't they just start using the damn Rife machines???

Originally posted by DrHoracid

Hey, leatherneck, the more you research prions, the more you become pessimistic. I've been working on a way to kill them for years. Ebola is easier to kill. It's like a "hidden" epidemic already.

Dr.Horacid I am going to ask you a question why is Ebola so fascinating that is the main topic for students in training?

Now about the HIV, well taking in consideration that we have not gotten rid off it, we are just under the impression of having "it" under control, is still an epidemic, but I will not said that is a "homosexual diseases" taking in consideration from where it came from, I think like soficrow this is an environmental and social diseases like many other that are sprouting all over.

One different HIV started around drugs users sharing their needles here in the US after an ifected man brought it from another another country, then, it was very nicely tag "homosexual disease" but when it started to infect everybody then we know is a epidemic and it has no borders.

HIV was going to come to the US no matter what and the carrier didn't matter either.

Thebandit795 what you mean to start using the rifle machines?

On who?