World Aids Day

Articles
Science, Vol 220, Issue 4599, 868-871
Copyright © 1983 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

"Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)"
F Barre-Sinoussi, JC Chermann, F Rey, MT Nugeyre, S Chamaret, J Gruest, C Dauguet, C Axler-Blin, F Vezinet-Brun, C Rouzioux, W Rozenbaum, and L Montagnier

A retrovirus belonging to the family of recently discovered human T-cell leukemia viruses (HTLV), but clearly distinct from each previous isolate, has been isolated from a Caucasian patient with signs and symptoms that often precede the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This virus is a typical type-C RNA tumor virus, buds from the cell membrane, prefers magnesium for reverse transcriptase activity, and has an internal antigen (p25) similar to HTLV p24. Antibodies from serum of this patient react with proteins from viruses of the HTLV-I subgroup, but type-specific antisera to HTLV-I do not precipitate proteins of the new isolate. The virus from this patient has been transmitted into cord blood lymphocytes, and the virus produced by these cells is similar to the original isolate. From these studies it is concluded that this virus as well as the previous HTLV isolates belong to a general family of T-lymphotropic retroviruses that are horizontally transmitted in humans and may be involved in several pathological syndromes, including AIDS.

A Cure for AIDS?

http://scienceray.com/biology/a-cure-for-aids/

Science update- new strategy for combatting AIDS spread

One of the big science news stories of the week is this-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100222/thl-aids-could-be-beaten-in-40-years-d831572.html
- story: a proposal by South African AIDS expert Professor Brian Williams to combat the spread of HIV by mass screening and treatment of those infected with anti-retroviral drugs with the aim of preventing further spread of the virus (and the side effect of giving those treated longer life expectancies, rather than the other way around). According to the article above, it is estimated that spread of the virus could be halted by 2015 using this method and that the eventual deaths of those infected would mean that AIDS effectively died out by 2050....