A New Strategy to Fight HIV and AIDS

March 7th, 2008

[Special Note and Commentary by Archbishop +Thaddeus:  This article is very important to many of us and my unworthy self.  Why?  Because I care for one who has had this horrible disease for more than 13 years and two others who have had it for 8 and 11 years or more. 

Father J. has now an over enlarged liver which continues with its growth, and his diabetes is being affected as well.  With Panama Fever and other disabilities his health issues are all the more dire in this battle as his longevity is now measured in months due to the stresses placed on him by outside forces in the local area who keep their cultic bravado going through hate mongering and fear tactics in their newspaper for questionable organizations who do not believe in present day U.S.A. government but consider themselves as Constitutionalists as well as their Minuteman organization.  The stress from all this has only caused for such further stress where Fathre J. has had the advancement of a form of cancer that was recently operated on and hopefully fully removed. 

These other people in Luna County, New Mexico don't care about anyone's health issues.  They are blackmailers, twist truth to their own stunted forms of belief and many other things they do that are worse, even leading, it has been alleged, to the inciting of others that caused for us to be torched out of our former residence in March 2007 (yes... over a year ago now)... and Father J. has stayed in the fight until recently when his specialist doctor made some pronouncements concerning the stresses and its affects on his longevity... stresses that we live under.  But Father J. says, "We shall not be moved.  We came here based on the visions of several people, some who don't know each other... and we shall, by the Grace of God, do what we have been ordained to do in this area, even unto our last breath if necessary."

Although it seems that Father J. may not be long with us to take advantage of the New findings because the new technology has not, as yet, been tested on human beings; it is possible (and that only by the Grace of God) for that we pray. Father J. along with many others may eventually become recipients of the new technology, IF time permits. 

This article is therefore all the more important for Father J and many others both locally and through out the world.]

An international team of researchers has developed a novel strategy against HIV. They added two genes to immune cells which ‘transformed them into potent weapons that destroy cells infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.’ This idea of ‘genetically engineering immune cells to redirect their infection-fighting ability toward killing HIV-infected cells could lead to an entirely new approach for combating AIDS.’ This research looks promising, but it’s only working in labs right now. But read more…

This research project has been led by Dr. Harris Goldstein, Director of the Einstein/MMC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Here is a link to his research objectives. But Goldstein was not alone to work on this study. There were other Einstein researchers involved as well as scientists and doctors of Harvard Medical School, the VU University Medical Center of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Before going further, here is how HIV works. “After infecting a cell, HIV instructs it to make viral proteins. Tiny bits of these proteins, known as peptides, are displayed on the surface of the infected cell—the cell’s way of signaling the immune system that it is infected. Detecting virus-infected cells so they can then be eliminated is the job of CTLs and the protein molecules, known as T-cell receptors, that jut from their surface. If a CTL’s T-cell receptor has the right amino acid sequence, it will recognize the HIV peptide on the infected cell as foreign — prompting the CTL to multiply and attack the infected cell. But all too often, this battle between activated CTLs and HIV-infected cells ends badly. Why, then, are super CTLs of elite controllers so effective in killing HIV-infected cells?”

After searching an answer to this question, the researchers decided to ‘reprogram’ these CTLs by inserting specific genes into their chromosomes. “‘We demonstrated that these genetically reprogrammed CTLs have very strong activity in terms of killing HIV-infected cells in both test tubes and an animal model,’ says Dr. Goldstein. In some of the animal studies, for example, the researchers injected mice with both HIV-infected human cells and with reprogrammed naïve CTLs into which the HIV-recognizing T-cell receptor genes had been inserted using the lentiviral delivery system. One week later, when the researchers looked for HIV-infected human cells in the animals, they found that the infected cells had virtually been eliminated.”

If this technique works with animals, will it work for humans? Here are some Goldstein’s ideas about the future. “‘Ultimately, we’d like to remove CTLs from patients, convert them into potent HIV-specific CTLs by inserting a variety of HIV-specific CTL receptor genes, and then re-infuse these fresh, genetically reprogrammed CTLs back into patients. By reinforcing the immune system in this way, we hope to turn the tide of battle against HIV in favor of people infected with the virus.’”

In other words, even the lead researcher doesn’t really know if this technique will work on people infected by HIV.

For more information, this research work has been published in The Journal of Virology under the very long title “Lentiviral Vectors Encoding Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1)-Specific T-Cell Receptor Genes Efficiently Convert Peripheral Blood CD8 T Lymphocytes into Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes with Potent In Vitro and In Vivo HIV-1-Specific Inhibitory Activity” (Volume 82, Issue 6, Pages 3078-3089, March 2008). Here is a link to the abstract which is undertandable only by experts in the field.

Sources: Albert Einstein College of Medicine news release, March 4, 2008; and various websites

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