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Brandon716

Brandon716

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/06/tech/main4652168.shtml

Nobel Winner: HIV Vaccine Within 5 Years
Therapeutic Vaccine - For Those Already Infected - Would Be Step Toward Preventative Shot

(CBS/AP) One of the scientists sharing the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering HIV said Saturday he believes there will be a therapeutic vaccine to treat the virus within five years.

Luc Montagnier, of France, told reporters in Sweden that he believed it was "a matter of 4 to 5 years" before a therapeutic vaccine to treat HIV infection is developed. He did not elaborate as to why he believed scientists were close.

Scientists have developed lifesaving drugs that can inhibit the disease, but there is no vaccine to prevent or treat HIV infection. Finding a vaccine has proved elusive in the past, with the most recent trials ending in failure.

However, a therapeutic vaccine would be a key step in fighting the virus, he said. A therapeutic vaccine would be given to people who are already infected, in order to lessen the impact of the disease while a preventative vaccine would, ideally, protect people from HIV.

So far, scientists have focused on drugs to fight the disease because they have been proving effective. In developed countries, AIDS has become manageable, rather than fatal, because of the drugs.

HIV was first identified 25 years ago, but still poses difficult challenges. Scientists cannot explain, for example, why it causes the immune system to collapse.

Montagnier, together with other Nobel laureates, began arriving in Stockholm on Saturday ahead of a week of Nobel festivities that culminates with a lavish banquet and awards ceremony Dec. 10.

The 76-year old scientist shares one half the $1.2 million prize with 61-year-old Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, also of France, for their research on HIV. The other half goes to Germany's Harald zur Hausen, 72, for showing a viral cause for cervical cancer.

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf will hand over the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Wednesday along with the awards in chemistry, physics, literature and economics. The Nobel Peace Prize is presented at a separate ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
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I am unaware if this topic was discussed before, but this is the same guy that helped discover the HIV vaccine at the Pasteur Institute in France back in the 1980's. Its a pretty remarkable statement from someone with such influence and expertise.

The biggest issue with this is that its not a true prevention, its therapy after already contracting it, but supposedly will reduce it to insignificance.

I highlighted the Nobel prize part because this isn't just a statement from someone without experience. Hopefully this means something. :)
 
I don't share his optimism for a vaccine, of course I don't share his Nobel Prize either.

Personally I think that mutagenesis is the future for treating HIV and other viruses. It is like giving your virus a virus, or cancer to your cancer, and having it self destruct. Up regulating CRACC gene, in conjunction, might also be an important strategy.
 
Glen said:
.

Personally I think that mutagenesis is the future for treating HIV and other viruses. It is like giving your virus a virus, or cancer to your cancer, and having it self destruct. Up regulating CRACC gene, in conjunction, might also be an important strategy.
Click to expand...

this sounds promising too...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_interference
 
I doubt they'll ever develop a vaccine, it would be the equivalent of saying that one day scientists will figure out a way to unscramble an egg. But then I dropped out of microbiology after three years and Montagnier has a Nobel prize, so I eagerly await the blowing of my mind 4 to 5 years from now.
 
Nobel prizes don't provide special foresight into the future.

I am sceptical as well.
 
urbanfan89 said:
We've been on the verge of discovering an HIV vaccine for about 15 years now.
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Never say never, because technology on this issue has advanced a great deal in recent years, despite a consistent underfunding of HIV vaccine research vs. HIV sex education and drug funding.
 
You think HIV research is underfunded?

Compare it to malaria research and a disease death rate that ranges into the millions each year.
 
Although I am very glad to hear the news, I still have some lingering fears.
If a vaccine were developed I have no doubt every North American Child would be vaccinated within another five years. Why? Simply because they can afford it. But what happens if the pharmaceutical company decids (as they almost certainly will) that they want to make a tidy profit from the vaccine? The drug will remain in a corporate/political loopholes for decades before it its delivered en mass to those who need it the most: the third world.

I guess what I'm trying to say I'm afraid of the senarios from South Park. (Yes, South Park!) I'm refering to the episode when they find the cure for AIDS and "all they have to do it inject $50 000 in cash into their bloodstream for it to work!"
 
urbanboom said:
If a vaccine were developed I have no doubt every North American Child would be vaccinated within another five years. Why? Simply because they can afford it.
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Are you kidding? There is already a vaccine for cervical cancer and people are huffing and puffing because -- I paraphrase, now -- "it would give license to our daughters to act like whores".
 
^
Who suggested that? I know there has been some irrational opposition to the HPV vaccine, but never quite like that.

Dollar per life saved, we would probably be better off investing in (as Hydrogen points out) better access to anti-malarial drugs in Africa as well as various antibiotics. I for one am still amazed people on earth still have worms when it is so cheap and easy to get rid of that we have regularly have our dogs de-wormed. As it relates to AIDS, in the medium term we should probably invest more in AIDS education and social development in general. It sounds harsh to say, but much of the AIDS epidemic in Africa has it's roots in the profound lack of knowledge. South Africa's last President, Thabo Mbeki, didn't even recognize AIDS existed for the love of god. This was man who reached the highest position in the continent's most advanced country. I shutter to think what passes for sex ed in the slums around Harare or Durban. If people still view AIDS as part of some kind of Western conspiracy to subjugate Africa, as Mbeki is rumored to have, there is precious little westerners can do even if we do come up with a cure.
 
bleeepbluuup said:
Are you kidding? There is already a vaccine for cervical cancer and people are huffing and puffing because -- I paraphrase, now -- "it would give license to our daughters to act like whores".
Click to expand...


i've seen that. but usually, the first part of it is that vaccines are really dangerous and cause autism. then they get to the "slut license" thing.
 
Hydrogen said:
You think HIV research is underfunded?

Compare it to malaria research and a disease death rate that ranges into the millions each year.
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They are both underfunded, malaria much more so. I don't recall the numbers, but I vaguely remember hearing a quote that malaria vaccine research gets a global funding level of about $100 million/year whereas HIV vaccine globally has been funded at about $650 million/year last time I checked.

These are global numbers, including all world-wide governments, non-profits, and private research firms; however, my numbers may be a bit off as I'm remembering previous quotes in articles I have read in the past.

$650 million isn't much when you consider that's split among many different research groups in many different nations throughout the world. $100 million is a very poor number in the case of malaria; however, I think the issue with malaria is that it really hasn't spread beyond tropical climates because its a mosquito borne illness. So considering its not began to afflict Europe, North America, and Northern Asia/Japan, and even doesn't really cause problems in Oceania the disease has not gotten the noteriety that it deserves.
 
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Whoaccio said:
^
Who suggested that? I know there has been some irrational opposition to the HPV vaccine, but never quite like that.

Dollar per life saved, we would probably be better off investing in (as Hydrogen points out) better access to anti-malarial drugs in Africa as well as various antibiotics. I for one am still amazed people on earth still have worms when it is so cheap and easy to get rid of that we have regularly have our dogs de-wormed. As it relates to AIDS, in the medium term we should probably invest more in AIDS education and social development in general. It sounds harsh to say, but much of the AIDS epidemic in Africa has it's roots in the profound lack of knowledge. South Africa's last President, Thabo Mbeki, didn't even recognize AIDS existed for the love of god. This was man who reached the highest position in the continent's most advanced country. I shutter to think what passes for sex ed in the slums around Harare or Durban. If people still view AIDS as part of some kind of Western conspiracy to subjugate Africa, as Mbeki is rumored to have, there is precious little westerners can do even if we do come up with a cure.
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Yes, I'm exaggerating. But there is an awful lot of controversy surrounding anything to do with sexual health. You'd think public health issues like condom usage is a no brainer.

I went to Catholic school, so whatever sex ed I got was minimal at best. There was lots of talk about abstinence, some talk of STDs, very little talk about condoms.
 
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