Wait. A Real, Honest To Goodness Breakthrough in HIV Research?
We never like getting our hopes up prematurely, but this is wild news: “After nearly two decades of futile searching for a vaccine against the AIDS virus, researchers are reporting the tantalizing discovery of antibodies that can prevent the virus from multiplying in the body and producing severe disease. They do not have a vaccine yet, but they may well have a road map toward the production of one. A team based at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla reports today in the journal Science that they have isolated two so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block the action of many strains of HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS. Crucial to the discovery is the fact that the antibodies target a portion of HIV that researchers had not considered in their search for a vaccine. Moreover, the target is a relatively stable portion of the virus that does not participate in the extensive mutations that have made HIV able to escape from antiviral drugs and previous experimental vaccines.”
As someone who has lost family (my little brother at age 9)to HIV/Aids and nearly 50 others who were friends of my family, this news sounds wonderful. Hopefully there is really something to this ass it would bring hope for all those who are affected by the disease.
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As a former research viral immunologist, I can tell you that this is great news. It will take years to get to market, but it’s a real breakthrough.
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I hope this is serious. My father’s friend just passed away from AIDS. She was an artist and was doing really well. I know so many people living with AIDS and have always wondered when something like this was going to happen.
Personally, I believe the scientific community to be fronts for the evil industries of the world.
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red phone wrote, “Sounds great, but what distinguishes this from the regular appearance of ‘exciting breakthroughs’ we hear about every couple of months or so?”
The way to distinguish the real breakthroughs from hype is to ask independent bona fide researchers whether it is a breakthrough or not. A reporter writing an article might say anything, sometimes fueled by a researcher’s enthusiasm about his/her work, and sometimes by a need to impress the reporter’s editor.
A researcher’s enthusiasm is understandable – getting interesting results takes a huge amount of work and people have to have a lot of motivation to put in the necessary effort.
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Sounds great, but what distinguishes this from the regular appearance of “exciting breakthroughs” we hear about every couple of months or so?
I hope it’s the real deal, but unless I hear something more substantial, I’m not getting my hopes up.