I took a class on HIV/AIDS this year. We do know the origin of the virus, it comes from SIV - the primate version of HIV. But that doesn't matter as far as finding the cure goes. HIV is a retrovirus, it permanently embeds itself in the DNA of every cell it infects. Every time a cell multiples, the HIV multiplies. They have, however, been experimenting with cutting out the portion of DNA where the HIV exists, but this would obviously be very difficult to do on the entire body. HIV lies dormant in cells for years and it just hides itself in mass quantities in certain areas of the body. At this point a cure is a long way away, IMO.

not a big surprise, but it's relevant to this conversation.

In US cities, HIV linked more to poverty than race - AP

Study Links HIV, Poverty - WSJ
http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/i...0718221225.gif

Yes?

The mechanism for rejecting foreign bodies (specifically w/re: organ transplants) is so well-known that we have drugs to help prevent it (with varying degrees of success). Just because the immune system is attacking the new liver, for example, does not believe the liver is acting in the same way as a virus.

Put another way: your immune system will attempt to break down a splinter that is stuck in your finger. That does not mean that the splinter is causing a virus, right? Why would you assume, then, that other interactions with the body/immune system would "cause" or produce a virus?

We can map the genomic structure of HIV pretty easily. You seem to miss the point though - the human genome has been "mapped" fairly successfully for years, but that doesn't mean humans have been "traced back" to some origin point. Wouldn't it be nice if we did? All those Texas schools could get back to actually teaching proper biology of evolution . . . what a world.

However, just because we know the physical structure, that doesn't magically unlock a cure - everything in science exists in context, and the context in which HIV exists (namely, the human body, and more specifically attacking the immune system) is inordinately complex.

I worked in a virology lab that worked with gene therapy techniques for cancer treatments - we did extensive work with HPV, a much simpler virus than HIV. You'll notice that HPV vaccines are just now becoming prevalent, and only for the most important strains - that's after nearly 30 years of work. Cancer and HIV both encounter a key problem: how do you stop reproduction without killing the host? How do you interact favorably with genetic mutation/insertion in ways that don't feature consequences worse than or on par with the initial issue?

For every one assay that shows any success, 25 fail - and no amount of historical knowledge would really affect this at all. Ever. Mapping the structure of HIV has been done. Finding the origins would be largely a fool's errand, one that is MUCH more important for epidemiologists and sociologists than for those looking for a cure.

For a moment, I pondered whether WaxOff confused the reaction of our bodies to viruses with the virus itself as those reactions are indeed our bodies fighting something off. Then I realized that this combined with his previous comments suggests HIV showed up by gay men's bodies trying to fight off gay sex and creating HIV.

And I concluded he was still an idiot.

LOL!

Wow...how did I not read this thread sooner? Funny. Going back and looking for the roots of the HIV virus wouldn't help much with a vaccine mainly because the mutations are what we have to fight against, not the original non-virulent strain. There are so many viruses on this earth that were previously non-virulent that suddenly began killing humans, ie. EBOLA, Influenza, West Nile, Polio. I could go on and on and on. All it takes is a successful mutation to make the virus able to run wild through the human body until reproduction of the virus (the ultimate success) kills off the host.

But don't you know HIV is just a virus made by the government to distract us from the lizard people taking over the New World Order before changing our currency to the AMERO and making us all convert to Islam?

/adjusting my tin foil hat.

Shhhh....if we use big words like evolve and virulence, no one will see what we are doing.




Look at the monkey! Look at the monkey!




See it works everytime!

So there is a vaccine entering final testing... a few more years if this is successful then?

http://www.lanl.gov/news/stories/aid...l_testing.html

Are there any viruses that can be cured?

It depends what you mean by the word "cured" and which virus you are talking about.

However, this is a vaccine, so it's proactive, rather than a treatment.

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I'm assuming from the article that its a Phase III Clinical Trial, so (if it passes Phase III), we could be seeing the vaccine go up for approval in a few years.

I wasn't referring to what was previously being talked about in this thread.

When I say cured, I mean the cure eliminates the virus from the body.

And any virus, that's what I was asking. Thanks.

Um yeah.... the body's immune system can kill some viruses.

Yeah, most don't stick around. Some do like chicken pox, but most virii get fought off.

Thank God for that. Could you imagine having the flu for life?