New possible cure for AIDS discovered.

Hi ATS.

The cells of the body are protected by a substance named -CD59- from the bodies own self defense system. ( The immune systems white blood cells. )

The AIDS virus steals and uses this substance to avoid nasty visitors. This way the virus is invisible for the immune system.

Scientists have found a way to immobilize -CD59-. The problem is that it would also immobilize all the other cells protection from the immune system.

REMOVING a chemical "invisibility cloak" that makes HIV-infected cells look healthy might be the key to ridding people of the virus.

Human cells protect themselves against immune attack by displaying proteins on their surface that mark them as "self". When the immune system detects these proteins, it holds back. One way HIV evades immune attack is by hijacking one of these proteins - CD59 - and using it to disguise itself and the cells it infects as healthy, human cells.

This cloak doesn't kick in directly following HIV infection. First, antigens on HIV's surface prompt the immune system to pump out vast quantities of anti-HIV antibodies, which bind to the antigen and even trigger the destruction of some HIV. But once the infection is established, the CD59 cloak prevents further immune attack on the viral particles and infected cells, which also display the antigen (see diagram, right). "HIV patients have a very strong antibody response, but unfortunately it doesn't work," says Qigui Yu of the Indiana University School of Medicine in
Indianapolis.

Source : Remove HIV's invisibility cloak to defeat it

Kind regards

~ SK

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Dear Sinter Klaas

Having read the article in your link he is suggestion that it may lead eventually to a cure for HIV however at the moment it is only acting as yet another Anti Retro Viral.

Now don’t get me wrong another Anti Retro Viral is a good thing and in no way bad but it is just that and right now not a cure.

Here’s hoping that one day they find a cure.

reply to post by MAC269


Hence the part in the title that says : possible cure.

I also mention it in the OP.

Please forgive me if it looks like I'm saying that a cure has been discovered.
I posted the article because of its future possibilities. I mean, would you prefer that this article was not posted ?. IMO it is an honest and new development.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Dear Sinter Klaas

Forgive me I did not want to come across as mean spirited.

I work in an AIDS hospice so I like to point perhaps the obvious when it comes to this subject so people are not misled.

As the fact that we have ARV’s available these days is leading to risky behavior amongst the young in this area.

The fact is when we really get a cure it will be banner headlines.

reply to post by MAC269


I sympathize with your reason.

However... I can assure you it will have little effect. Never ever in my experience have I met someone who truly act with caution to avoid any sickness or disease until they are confronted by it personally or threw someone close. Then there are those who just don't care.

And the last and probably biggest group at risk are those addicted to drugs. Heroin withdrawal is more real then any other possible condition in the future.

Kind regards

~ SK

I thought the cure for AIDs was $180,000 injected directly into the bloodstream.