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Monday, November 10, 2008

Bone-Marrow Transplant Appears to Halt HIV

The findings signal promise for new therapies in development.
By Emily Singer

A carefully selected bone-marrow transplant for a leukemia patient appears to have stopped the patient's HIV infection: he shows no signs of the virus in his blood nearly two years after the procedure. While it's difficult to draw any conclusions from a single case, the outcome gives hope for new avenues for AIDS treatment.

Some people are genetically resistant to HIV infection, even when they engage in frequent high-risk behavior--a fact that hematologist Gero Hütter wanted to take advantage of when faced with a 42-year-old patient with both leukemia and HIV. The patient needed a bone-marrow transplant, so Hütter searched compatible blood donors for a specific genetic mutation known to protect against most strains of HIV. Doctors then irradiated the patient's immune system and transfused the donor cells.

The transplant surgeons halted his HIV drugs to give the new cells time to take root. They planned to resume the drugs once HIV was found in the patient's blood. But according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the virus never came back.

Nearly two years later, standard tests haven't detected virus in his blood, or in the brain and rectal tissues where it often hides . . . Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.

The treatment is unlikely to be broadly applicable: only about two-thirds of cancer patients survive the procedure. But scientists may be able to mimic the effect by reengineering patients' own cells. Doctors are already testing gene-therapy treatments that target the gene that renders some people immune to the virus.

According to the WSJ,

While cautioning that the Berlin case could be a fluke, David Baltimore, who won a Nobel prize for his research on tumor viruses, deemed it "a very good sign" and a virtual "proof of principle" for gene-therapy approaches. Dr. Baltimore and his colleague, University of California at Los Angeles researcher Irvin Chen, have developed a gene therapy strategy against HIV that works in a similar way to the Berlin case. Drs. Baltimore and Chen have formed a private company to develop the therapy.

Tags: hiv, gene therapy

Comments

  • Prior art
    By 1989 and again by 1996 I offered a suggestion to researchers (Veronese, infectiologist in Brazil) of a Xenotransplant procedure for AIDS treatment. Kill the patient's immune system and transplant the bone marrow of a simian (immune to HIV). I was not aware at the time that there were humans immune to HIV - if I knew my idea would be exactly what has supposedly been done.
    Rate this comment: 12345

    rkomatsu
    11/11/2008
    Posts:15
    Avg Rating:
    4/5
    • Re: Prior Art
      Damn....and you didn't get credit for it! What a shame....well, this is a good case for writing academic papers when you have good ideas like that (so you are credited with the idea when someone else executes it).
      Rate this comment: 12345

      Omnivore
      11/12/2008
      Posts:1
      • Re: Prior Art
        I'm an Electrical Engineer with a broad range of interests, but never wrote a paper myself. I was not taken seriously by the first researcher back in 1989, but Veronese in 1996 actually sent this idea and another one to Universities in the USA. I was not seeking credit, just trying to help. The other idea was a virus anti-virus - part of this idea appeared on a brain mapping technique used by Salk Institute, most likely devised independently.
        Rate this comment: 12345

        rkomatsu
        11/13/2008
        Posts:15
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        4/5
  • Cure for hiv/aids......Ambush
    THE CURE for HIV/AIDS.......AMBUSH

    THE IDEA that AMBUSH cures AIDS
    is being proven by the more than 400 individuals who have taken a dose of 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. The result is that AMBUSH 'KILLS' the virus by causing the protein envelope to rupture and the viral particles are discarded by the white blood cells. AMBUSH is able to 'KILL' the virus that are 'hiding' in the lymph system by its 'natural radioactive' properties. This process allows the body to 'return to normal health' with a corresponding immunity to that or those strains of the virus.

    What is AMBUSH ?
    AMBUSH is a radioactive isotope of uranium that is found in the 'palm' plant of which there are more than 3000 species. When ingested, AMBUSH causes the body temperature in the trunk area to rise to about 102 degrees when the individual is sleeping. The preparation takes four hours per batch, which is then given to the individuals for consumption 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. AMBUSH is a herbal preparation in this form but it contains an active ingredient which is a 'NEW' crystalline substance, a drug from the 'palm plant' similarly to ASPIRIN originating from the willow tree bark

    RESULTS:
    After 21 days on AMBUSH, ALL the individuals experienced a decrease in viral load to undetectable, an increase in cd4, increase in RBC, an improvement in general health such as more color to the face, decrease in Buffalo hump, an increase in gluteal muscles, a decrease to having no joint pains whereby individuals can bend to touch their toes, and walk up steps are but a few examples. There is also a dramatic increase in their sexual appetite beginning after the first week of therapy

    DISCUSSION:
    In any plant concoction such as percolated 'tea', there are 30-40,000 compounds, whi ch would take the scientific community twenty years to isolate one particular ingredient if they knew what they were looking for. The LORD GOD has given me seven steps to isolate the active ingredient, which is soft and metallic in nature and has a carbon- uranium-sulfur-(classified)-phentolamine configuration or structure. This is similar to Federick Kekule and the discovery of the benzene ring where he dreamt the structure.

    As an antiviral and 'natural radioactivity' producing agent, AMBUSH is also effective against leukemia, lupus and HPV. Here I am saying that I have 'GIVEN' AMBUSH in the same 'strength' and dosage to patients with leukemia, lupus and HPV. A 35 year old male with HIV found it difficult to impossible to urinate was put on 'green tea' and water while the doctors contemplated prostrate surgery. One of the doctors gave him my number , I sent him a supply of AMBUSH an d he has not been given any more ARV's, since taking AMBUSH 18 months ago, is in 'good' health and has expressed a willingness to be examined by HIV investigators like many others who have taken AMBUSH.

    I have sent this 'IDEA' to most HIV research agencies, scientist of the field, universities, hospitals, clinics, politicians and news agencies to which it is REJECTED because the name of THE LORD GOD is mentioned. He has steered me scientifically through the processes such as which plant and how to produce the active ingredient. What are the odds of a Florida Pharmacist picking a plant would contain the CURE for HIV/AIDS ?
    I have never charged any of the people for their supply of AMBUSH but a life saving has been spent on the project with NO renumeration from any sources because AMBUSH falls outside the walls of modern medicine and research.

    PROPOSAL:

    My proposal is that I PROVE that AMBUSH CURES HIV/AIDS by giving it to a number of END-STAGE or DRUG-RESISTANT people and the scientific community watches their recovery. This proposal addresses the problem in that I have already outlaid the results to be obtained.

    This IDEA is unconventional in that the scientific community has rejected AMBUSH because I say it is GOD given. Secondly if I wrote it according to certain standards, then it might be peer reviewed. However, THE LORD GOD has also shown me that there are five enzyme systems associated with the virus, reverse transcriptase, protease, fusion and two more of which causes the virus to be AIRBOURNE. This means that without DIVINE intervention mankind and ALL warm- blooded mammals will be extinct in a number of years.

    The PROOF of what I am saying is found in scientific papers wherein it is found that when the protease cuts the viral strands, it cuts it at DIFFERENT lengths EVERY time, to which it should always be a valine at the end but is a different amino acid every time. This is why it is IMPOSSIBLE to produce a VACCINE.

    Since this is NOT a hypothesis but there are about 400 individuals who have taken AMBUSH, here lies a vast area in which to check, recheck and confirm that AMBUSH CURES AIDS. Let it be mentioned that during the HIV reproductive cycle, reverse transcriptase converts viral RNA into DNA compatible to human genetic materials. Thus the human DNA has been 'hijacked' and since each person has a DIFFERENT DNA, then the new viral copy is unique to that person which shows that each individual has a DIFFERENT STRAIN of the virus. Consider two HIV positive people swapping viral strains and increasing its complexity with multiple partners.
    It can also be proposed that they be revisited as proof that the strain or strains that they had were 'killed' at the time of taking AMBUSH considering that a person can catch as many different strains as there are people who are infected by HIV.
    I am also willing to work with the scientific community in identifying those individuals who took AMBUSH and wish to be identified with this process notwithstanding that some are stigmatized while others are jubilant,

    Once AMBUSH is verified as being able to accomplish that which is aforementioned then the next stage might be the natural and artificial synthesis of the substance.

    Finally, if this is accepted or not, believed or not, THE LORD GOD always wins and this is the heavenly truth to which AMBUSH was divinely given to mankind for the CURE of HIV/AIDS and it will be here forever. Apostle Shada Mishe.

    apostleshadamishe@gmail.com

    Here is a video taped presentation that I gave at t he Martin Luther King library in Washington

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V53D1w__Po
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPwuwlVBOV0
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZejptOwMTzQ
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqcTgIAhrhc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7HPKcT_iwY
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iQfgiYAnw
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3RzRS6tJDM
    Rate this comment: 12345

    apostleshada...
    12/23/2008
    Posts:3
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  • yet again
    "While cautioning that the Berlin case could be a fluke" well of course it could be a Fluke
    Rate this comment: 12345

    jjbaulikki
    07/01/2009
    Posts:4
    Avg Rating:
    1/5
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