Researchers Are Close To Finding A Cure For HIV
Researchers have been searching for a cure for HIV, and are optimistic that they may have found it. Experts in the field of study to combat this horrible disease carried out a study that enabled them to reconfigure blood cells. The reconfiguration was done to help make the blood cells resistant against the disease that eventually leads to AIDS.
During the trial, there were six individuals who were infected with virus. They were treated with antiretroviral therapy, known by its acronym term ART. Experts in the field of Science are not certain if this therapy can cure the deadly virus, but they are optimistic and believe that they are finally headed in the right direction.
The studies with the six infected individuals were performed shortly after a man who resided in Berlin received a stem cell transplant and four years after the transplant was cured of the virus. The gene therapy results were announced in March of 2011, during a medical conference. At the conference researchers voiced their opinion on the step to finding a solution to the virus.
They are hoping that they are taking the right steps to undo what this disease has done to the lives of millions who have been affected by it. Researchers are still trying to look for a definite solution to eliminate the virus for good. The new approach that researchers have uncovered will not entirely eliminate the virus from afflicting the body, but it will make the virus easier to control.
By making the virus stagnant, progression ceases. This will in turn stop the virus from becoming AIDS, which is an auto immune disease that eventually leads to death. Cell transplant studies have been performed, where cells were taken out of the body and different healthy cells were infused into patient’s bodies.
This gene therapy was done to assist with muffling the activity of genes, while adding new genes at the same time. Unfortunately, both of the gene therapies have not been successful in eliminating the disease entirely. The six men research study allowed researchers to filter in gene snipping compounds known as zinc finger nuclease.
The cells were mixed with growth factors that would keep them thriving and then introduced back into the inflicted males bodies. Three of the men received five billion cells that had been modified, while the other half of the group received two hundred billion cells that had been modified; a year following the study, the cells are still thriving and multiplying like they should.
The HIV virus attacks an individual’s T-cells. These cells are special because they help the immune system function properly, eliminating disease from the body. In fact, one thing that many fail to realize is there actually are some people in the world that are immune to HIV, although the percentage is few. At the present time there is no definite cure for HIV. However, researchers are doing everything in their power through gene manipulation trials to try to find one that will suffice. When the cure is announced the world will forever be changed for the better.
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