Scientists Find Way To "Disarm" AIDS Virus

So after reading about how gamers were able to discover the protein structure of the HIV/AIDS virus, I discovered a new article which builds on the momentum of finding a cure for AIDS.
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Scientists find way to "disarm" AIDS virus

www.theprovince.com...
Posted: Sept. 20, 2011

"Scientists have found a way to prevent HIV from damaging the immune system and say their discovery may offer a new approach to developing a vaccine against AIDS.

Researchers from the United States and Europe working in laboratories on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) found it is unable to damage the immune system if cholesterol is removed from the virus's membrane.

"It's like an army that has lost its weapons but still has flags, so another army can recognize it and attack it," said Adriano Boasso of Imperial College London, who led the study.

The team now plans to investigate how to use this way of inactivating the virus and possibly develop it into a vaccine.

Working with scientists Johns Hopkins University, the University of Milan and Innsbruck University, Boasso's team found that if cholesterol is removed from HIV's envelope, it can no longer activate pDCs. As a result, T cells, which orchestrate the adaptive response, can fight the virus more effectively."
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I think this is very exciting. I remember long ago when I was studying genetics at university ways of cracking the code for the AIDS virus. I knew it had something to do with the structure of the virus, but didn't know what or why, really. Ironically I am also an avid gamer, hahaha.

That said, I wonder how much the cure would be for AIDS. If you think about how pharmaceutical companies are trying to get their hands on the drug that would kill the cell, you can just imagine the war for patency issues to come in the news horizon.

What are your thoughts ATS members? Is finding a cure for AIDS a good thing or a bad thing? And what are the future implications of finding such a vaccine that would destroy the virus without damaging natural healthy cells in the human body!?

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


HIV-AIDS is prion related.

ALL prions require cholesterol to propagate - and ALL prions hijack the cells' machinery to create cholesterol. But ALL cholesterol is not bad. So on the surface, yeah, removing the cholesterol from the virus (or other cells') membranes seems like a good idea - but is it? Really?