dario:
A small company from New Zealand (see: http://www.virionyx.com) is to start phase II clinical trials of peHRG214 in October 2006. (This is what Mr Simon Wilkonson told in an e-mail).
Personally I am bit sceptical of it. The idea of passive immunotheraphy using polyclonal antibodies derived from goats seems a bit bizarre. Nevertheless it apparently is getting fda approval.
J220:
I was browsing their site, and their research to date looks good.
Can you imagine if this works all the way? That would be the kicks (no pun intended!), deriving the cure/ treatment from goats.
But hey, if it works it works, we'll gladly say baaaaaaahhhhhh al the way to to doctor's office to get the shots!
One thing that struck me from their research, some of the patients in the phase I trial experienced a significant rash...determined cause?
"...cell death, eg the destruction of large quantities of HIV virus and infected cells."
Sounds good to me!
otherplaces:
Perhaps not as crazy as you think. From what I've read, prior to HIV retroviruses were primarily in the domain of animals...which is why the discovery of a retrovirus in humans was shocking and unexpected.
So to derive a therapy from animals who have already dealt with retroviruses longer than we have isn't so crazy.
brian
ScienceGuy25:
Hey Guys
I work in the field of immunotherapy (working on my PhD). This idea is not at all far fetched. In fact the current trend in antibody work is to develop the antibody in a mouse model and then "humanize" it so that the human immune system does not attack the antibody as foreign.
I'm not too familiar with their work but I would say it's one to watch and see.
J220:
No question about it, this seems to have potential. In particular, from their website:
"Results also indicate that these [caprine] antibodies also destroy the infected human immune cells responsible for ongoing virus production within an infected human."
I am not sure but if I read this correctly this would mean latently-infected cells? I am going to write an email to see if that is what they mean.