Cure research

[buginme2]

This is interesring.  NIH has made several grants supporting HIV cure research.  Yah NIH.  

http://fhcrc.org/about/ne/news/2011/07/07/potential_cure_for_hiv.html

[dpb]

This is so refreshing to read.  Cure research has been severely underfunded.  It would appear as though we're finally making progress in eradication research.  Keep the hope alive.

[sensual1973]

I think that rich countries should be forced to contribute to AIDS research too,its not the responsibilty of the US or Europe alone.

[LM]

I think that rich countries should be forced to contribute to AIDS research too,its not the responsibilty of the US or Europe alone.

And who else is rich besides US and Europe?

What annoys me is that they dedicate US$ 20mi to research for HIV cure, while US$ 1 trillion is spent with wars.

[sensual1973]

Havent you heard of Saudi Arabia ?,UAE?,Brunie? they sit on trillions.
.

[metekrop]

....,its not the responsibilty of the US or Europe alone.

What else countries you know are rich in the world to do research on AIDS other than US and EU?

[sensual1973]

all am saying is that other rich countries "must" contribute financially to the research going on in the west,i hope my point is now clear.

[Hellraiser]

What else countries you know are rich in the world to do research on AIDS other than US and EU?

To say the US is rich is almost laughable.  We're in debt up to our eyeballs.

[Assurbanipal]

(

To say the US is rich is almost laughable.  We're in debt up to our eyeballs.

I know you live deep in FOX country, but you are repeating Republican nonsense/spin that is emotive rather than factual.  In the reality based world....  the US has been at higher debt levels previously --after the Great Depression and world war II -- furthermore current US debt levels as a percent of Gross Domestic Product are comparable or smaller than most other strong economies such as Germany -- and we could fix most of the problem by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and returning to the historically low, but slightly higher, tax rates of the Clinton years) 

As far as rich countries, if you rank them by total GDP then China should step up and so should Japan.  Even on GDP per capita Japan is a very rich country.

[John2038]

Others recent funding for research seeking for a cure


Expanded Research Effort To Seek Cure For AIDS - July 14, 2011

Funding support, totaling $32 million, comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a member of the National Institutes of Health. The group will pursue a dozen or more projects to determine how HIV remains dormant and almost undetectable in the immune system's T-cells, and to develop possible drug treatments to counter these HIV reservoirs.

"This group approach has me much more optimistic," says Siliciano, whose initial discoveries of the viral reservoirs and their ability to evade antiretroviral drug therapies led him initially to doubt the possibility of a real cure for the disease. Now, he adds, "after years of developing a better understanding of these HIV reservoirs, to the point where we can make and study latently infected T-cells in the laboratory, we are finally ready to go after them." Siliciano is a professor at Johns Hopkins and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/231053.php


$5.6 Million In Federal Funds To Seek A Cure For AIDS - July 13, 2011

The Gladstone Institutes will receive funds totaling $5.6 million over five years as part of the first-ever major funding initiative focusing on HIV eradication. The funds will help three principal investigators at Gladstone, an independent biomedical-research organization, to explore the molecular basis for HIV latency where the virus that causes AIDS "hides" dormant within cells waiting for an opportunity to reemerge when therapy is withdrawn.

With these funds, Dr. Greene's laboratory will seek to identify previously unrecognized products in the cell that help maintain HIV latency - ultimately working to develop inhibitors against these cellular proteins. Dr. Greene's laboratory also will analyze the action and targets of various regulatory molecules known as microRNAs that are present in latently infected CD4 T cells. Eric Verdin, MD, will study the potential role of the cell's chromatin-remodeling machines in the establishment and maintenance of HIV latency; while Melanie Ott, PhD, will examine the role of histone methylation in HIV latency and the effects of small-molecule inhibitors that block the action of various methyl transferases.

"If we can successfully eradicate latency, we might be able to avoid drug therapy altogether," said Dr. Verdin, who is a senior investigator at Gladstone.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/230904.php

[Coolio_7]

This all really sounds promising! I'm especially intrigue by the methylation process. If I remember correctly from what i read, if scientists can stop the methylation process then they may be able to override the latency that the cells show when infected.

It would be great if research can continue in terms of finding something that be injected into the infected cells to kill the cells and thus counteract HIVs ability to become dormant. I have read that they already found molecules that can actually seek out HIV latent cells and deliver some kind of peptide or protein to reactivate them. So it should be possible go just kill the cell and thus eradicate all cells infected with HIV.

I'm just happy that his type of research is going on. It gives all of us hope that someday antivirals may not be needed for the rest of our lives!