"Elite Suppressor" Why a woman may hold the secret to AIDS vaccine

Both husband and wife have HIV but she does not require treatment to keep it at bay. According to doctors her T-cells stop the virus from replicating by as much as 90% while her husband can only muster 30%. Doctors hope that with further study they can work on a vaccine based on how her immune system works.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman who has never shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus may hold the secret to defeating the virus, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Infected at least 10 years ago by her husband, the woman is able somehow to naturally control the deadly and incurable virus -- even though her husband must take cocktails of strong HIV drugs to control his.

She is a so-called "elite suppressor," and studies of her immune cells have begun to offer clues to how her body does it, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said.
news.yahoo.com...

THANK you Fred! This is news with an absolute staggaring implication -- that perhaps her autoimmune system holds the key to defeating a shifting antigen virus.

I would want to rule out (or in!) internal variables, such as differences in diet, water intake, DNA, blood type, even psycological/spiritual influences. WOW! Hopeful news, always welcome. I hope more information becomes available, and I hope she is willing to be studied, really studied. I'd guess so, given that her mate is not faring as well. I'd also guess that the critical [measurable] variables are there, within her, somewhere......... perhaps a combination of factors, and hopefully once discovered in a lab application, those factors can be reproduced and given to others.

This is the most important news for humanity that I've read in the past year. Amazing.

You want a cure?

You need my bounty system. There is no money in a cure.

Treatment, that is where the money is. We haven't cured # since Polio!

In my opinion, the only way to get a cure for Aids, Cancer, MS, ect. is a bounty.

50 Billion for a cure... someone will bite.

Really, research dollars - treatment dollars, there is no incentive to find a cure.

I bet with a bounty, we would have a cure for these ailments before the next president leaves office.

Starred and FLagged!

Nice find Fred!

The reason I flagged this is because I think it is important to understand how our immune system's react to certain influences, whether those influences be genetic or external.

What is the influence in this case? That, determining factor?

What gets me about this article is the fact that there is no mention of feeding habits at all. While I think it's safe to assume they have similar diets, it could be just a small difference in certain food intakes that make her immune system so defensive.

THanks for the article, now you've really got me thinking......

-Dev