GENE THERAPY COULD END AIDS SOONER RATHER THAN LATER

Gene therapy and stem cell research are two of the most exciting and fastest growing sciences in the world today. Their applications are becoming more and more far-reaching with every passing day.

In fact, either or both of two different avenues of research in gene therapy alone could very well prove to have yielded the most important discoveries ever made in the seemingly endless battle against HIV/AIDS.

For decades now, scientists have known that some people who have been repeatedly exposed to the HIV virus through unprotected sex, never developed the disease. They've been baffled and frustrated by this phenomena because they weren't able to figure out why. Until now.

In a February 3rd posting at Wired.com, Aaron Rowe reported:

Most people have a gene called CCR5, which makes them vulnerable to HIV infections. The naturally resistant people have mutant CCR5 genes that inhibit HIV.

Previously, scientists found that by cutting the CCR5 gene out of white blood cells involved in the immune response known as T-cells, they could protect a tube full of human cells from the virus. The gene editing technique relies on proteins called zinc finger nucleases that can delete any gene from a living cell.

In theory, zinc finger nucleases could give that immunity to anyone.

When this story first broke, I decided not to cover it on my blog because I didn't want to, once again, get people's hopes up. I wanted to wait until there was at least a little more concrete proof that this was more than just another interesting theory.

Well, it seems that things really are "closer than they appear in your rearview mirror." In a February 18th story by Andy Coghlan in NewScientist magazine:

The story begins with a man in Germany who last week was reported to be free of HIV following a bone marrow transplant. The donor was known to have two copies of a gene that prevents HIV from invading white blood cells. For the first time, it may be possible to eliminate the virus from the body, as opposed to simply keeping it in check with antiretroviral therapies (ART).

The story went on to say:

Word first surfaced last November that a man had been "cured" of HIV through a bone marrow transplant, but this wasn't confirmed until last week, when the full results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine (vol 360, p 692). "It's now almost exactly two years ago that we treated him, and the virus is nowhere to be seen," says Gero Hütter of the Charité University of Medicine in Berlin, head of the team that treated the man.

Hütter exploited a finding a decade ago that some individuals naturally defy HIV. It turned out that they had inherited two copies of a "delta32" mutation in a gene called CCR5, one from each parent. That mutation means CD4 white blood cells can't make a protein on their surface that HIV uses as a "door handle" to invade the cells, so the virus can't get in.

Then, when a man with HIV developed leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant, Hütter reasoned that it might be possible to treat his cancer and also give him an HIV-resistant immune system, since his own would be destroyed by chemotherapy anyway. The hunt was on to find a donor with two delta32 mutations. From 80 potentials, he found one. After the transplant, HIV-resistant cells took over the man's immune system, "curing" him of HIV. "Every new immune cell that grew thereafter in the bone marrow had these deletions, and so was resistant," says Hütter.

Now, although these are very dramatic results, the reality of being able to find people with the CCR5 variant who would also be compatible bone marrow donors with each individual HIV/AIDS patient would be, to say the least, a challenge. That's where gene therapy, a way of mimicking the same result without a donor, comes in.

Sangamo Biosciences of Richmond, California, began the first human trial of a promising gene therapy last week. "The German patient is the definitive proof that if you replace patients' immune cells, it's sufficient to protect the patient," says Philip Gregory of Sangamo.

Sangamo makes artificial versions of natural enzymes called zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), which zero in on and disrupt any genes you choose - in this case the CCR5 gene, so that it stops making the HIV door-handle protein.

The company plans to take blood samples from 12 patients and extract the CD4 cells. It will then add a harmless virus to the cell carrying genes that code for the ZFNs. The altered CD4 cells produce the ZFNs, which sabotage the CCR5 gene. The ZFNs and the virus are then washed away and the genetically modified cells injected back into the patient.

There are, of course, many other trials and tests that would have to be done but this whole avenue of research could finally be the real light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel we've all be waiting for and not just another fleeting reflection of our hopes.

The NewScientist article is a somewhat lengthy, in-depth piece that would be worth a few minutes of your time. If you would like to read the full report, go to: NewScientist.com

BTW - the report also talks about the possibility of using stem cells to accomplish the same result.

Scientist Tells PFOX To Stop Distorting His Work

According to a press release from Truthwinsout.com (TWO) Dr. Gary Remafedi said that PFOX (Parents & Friends Of Ex-Gays) has manipulated his research study and should take the distortions off its website immediately.

PFOX objected to a story run by the Washington Post that was about a 15-year-old boy who described his homosexual feelings and how Gay Straight Alliance student clubs help gay teens deal with discrimination and bullying in high school and middle school. PFOX Executive Director Regina Grigg is quoted as saying “What the article failed to describe is the danger of young sexually confused teens self-identifying as gays at an early age. Research has shown that the risk of suicide decreases by 20% each year that a person delays homosexual or bisexual self-labeling. Early self-identification is dangerous to kids.” The research that was cited to "prove" her case was Dr. Remafedi’s study.

Today, Dr. Remafedi released the following statement to Truth Wins Out:

“My work has been cited by PFOX in response to a Washington Post article on gay-straight alliances (GSA). PFOX misuses one of my studies on suicide attempts in gay youth to argue that people should not identify their sexual orientation at young ages. Our findings do not support the contention that young people choose their identity or the timing of events in identity formation. Nor is there any evidence that the availability of GSAs influences those developmental processes.”

PFOX, as well as Focus on the Family, distorted Dr. Remafedi's findings to make the case that young people should not learn about homosexuality because they were sexually confused, and could thus be influenced by educational material. This is just one more example of how virulently homophobic, right-wing, pseudo religious groups twist and distort legitimate scientific research to fit their own sick and perverted arguments. Much like our President has done with environmental research studies over the last almost eight years.

These groups count on the fact that most people would never know what the research really said and they rely on that ignorance to make it sound like someone or something "official" supports their arguments. That's why it's important to expose them whenever they're caught doing it. TruthWinsOut does an excellent job of riding roughshod over these groups and I commend them for their diligence. I also commend Dr. Remafedi for coming forward and not letting them get away with distorting his work.

To read the full press release go to: Truthwinsout.com

Changing Sexual Orientation In The Womb

More and more lately, science is discovering concrete, demonstrable, physical differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals. These discoveries are rapidly validating what we have known all along. We were born to be gay. It never was a "choice" and isn't a "lifestyle". It's a biologic reality.

The problem with these ever increasing discoveries is that the religious fanatics are beginning to realize that all their arguments against homosexuality are being proven wrong. Logically, you would think that this would be a good thing. If we're not an abomination against God and we're not the evil sinners they've preached about, that we are, indeed, born this way then devout christians should begin to embrace our community as another of God's natural creations and rejoice in the incredible and wonderful diversity that is life itself. Well, think again.

Last year, the Rev. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote: "If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use." Mohler told the Associated Press that morally, this would be no different from curing fetal blindness or any other "medical problem." The Rev. Joseph Fessio, editor of the press that publishes the pope's work, agreed: "Same-sex activity is considered disordered. If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb … that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science."

It's obvious that no matter what the cause, these fanatics would rather manipulate the natural make up of the fetus in the womb to make it just like them rather than embrace the wisdom of, in their own words, "God's Supreme Plan." This is about as hypocritical as it gets. But then again, we've all known that the biggest, most glaring attribute of these fanatics is the astounding hypocrisy and outright non-truths of their assertions across the board.

I took the above quotes from an excellent and very disturbing article written by William Saletan and posted at Slate.com this morning. This is something your really NEED TO READ in its entirety.

Clearly, the next battlefield the gay civil rights movement, hell - the HUMAN civil rights movement, is going to find itself pushed to is the scientific, biological battlefield.

Full story at Slate.com.