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Risky transplant may be answer for drug-free HIV treatment

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Topdawg13, Mar 7, 2011.

  1. Topdawg13

    Topdawg13 New Member

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  2. Ohio Fanatic

    Ohio Fanatic Twuaddle or bust Club Member

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    Like many academic anti-viral research groups: making bold claims before there's any real evidence to support it. I'm not knocking the German doctors who did the successful bone marrow transplant. Although I question how useful that is to the majority of the population of HIV patients who can't afford such an expensive procedure. and not sure why insurance would cover it either.

    But, the 2nd group, they are overhyping their research to get more money. Not faulting them for it, just don't believe it.
    In theory, it could have some use, even if you could get that procedure to work on a regular basis. But, what they fail to mention is that CCR5 is the viral entry protein for only one of the two forms of HIV-virus - M-tropic. So, if the patient has AIDS (which utilizes a different viral entry protein - CXCR4) then this is useless. AND, if the patient has even a small amount of the T-tropic virus, then all this will do is put selective pressure for the patient to go from HIV to AIDS. Plus, even if the patient only has M-tropic HIV, this procedure doesn't clean out the current virus, so you could still get some conversion to the deadlier form.
     

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