Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org (Wounded Bird) (08/29/90)
Again from "Mobilizing Against Aids":
"In September 1987, Annamari Ranki of Helsinki University Hospital and her
finnish and American coworkers described their analysis of stored serum
samples from 9 men who had recently become HIV-seropositive. They found that
the men had been infected with HIV for 6 to 14 months before they tested
positive on standard antibody tests. Subsequent studies by the researchers
revealed that 5 of 25 seronegative sexual partners of known HIV-
antibody-positive men (24 men and 1 woman) also were infected with HIV for
more than a year without seroconversion. Other laboratories are reevaluating
these data."
"Steven Wolinsky of Northwestern University Medical School and his coworkers
reported similar results at the Fourth International Conference on Aids [June
1988]. They used a new technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test
to search for small quantities of viral DNA in stored blood samples from 18
homosexual and bisexual men who had recently become HIV-seropositive. They
found that 14 of the men had had evidence of the viral genome in their blood
for more than a year before they developed detectable antibodies: 6 for 18
months, 2 for 24 months, 2 for 30 months, 1 for 36 months and 1 for 42
months."..........
They go on to describe research which has indicated that in very rare cases
HIV positives have gone seronegative as long as 2.5 years after being
diagnosed but still retain the viral genome in their blood. They conclude
that:
The Wolinsky sample is too small to accurately derrive an average time for
antibody production but...... ".....A seronegative test result should not be
viewed as a guarantee that a partner is free of the virus if the partner has
engaged in high-risk behavior in the past." ------------------------------
Practice safer sex and get multiple ELISA's over a period of years.They only
cost about 6 bucks....W.B.
SEEN-BY:
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Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!135!38!Wounded.Bird
Internet: Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.orghartman@ide.com (Robert Hartman) (09/14/90)
[I recieved this by mail from a correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous, but agreed to let me forward his/her comments to the net -r] > Subject: Re: Hot Blood > > ... > Actually, there are plausible mechanism by which heat treatment could > kill a cell containing an integrated but inactive provirus. In > principle, the heat treatment (or some drug) could eliminate all > infected cells and all live virus from a person. Unfortunately, > the hyperthermia treatment does not seem to be effective after all. I never got this impression from the news clips. What I got was that there were several patients that died anyway--but that they were pretty far gone to begin with. What I'm wondering is if HT would be more effective with patients in whom the disease has not progressed very far. Were there results showing that HT does not kill infected cells? I never read about any. If not, the perhaps it is a potential cure whose value is not yet accepted because of its unorthodox/botched testing procedures. (Or maybe it's another case of cold fusion after all.) -r ps. Do infected cells exhibit surface differences that would enable a drug to bind with them exclusively? Is anyone pursuing this line of research, and has there been any progress? Another idea, but one that sounds expensive: could it be possible to apply gene therapy to a class of killer macrophages specifically to target them against cells exhibiting characteristics of HIV infection (or Herpes, or Hepatitis B, or whatever)? Of course, if the cells exhibit no discernable characteristics, this line of attack would fail, but I can't believe they wouldn't exhibit some subtle differences.
Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org (Wounded Bird) (09/18/90)
>[I recieved this by mail from a correspondent who wishes to remain >anonymous, but agreed to let me forward his/her comments to the net -r] >> Subject: Re: Hot Blood >> >> ... >> Actually, there are plausible mechanism by which heat treatment could >> kill a cell containing an integrated but inactive provirus. In >> principle, the heat treatment (or some drug) could eliminate all >> infected cells and all live virus from a person. Unfortunately, >> the hyperthermia treatment does not seem to be effective after all. Heat treatment sounds like a plausible "cure" only if you are unaware of the following facts: 1> HIV is carried into the brain by monocytes/macrophages which carry the virus accross the blood-brain barrier. Once there HIV infects glial cells and endothelial cells. Glial cells provide structural support to nerve cells and help regulate the transfer of nutrients from blood vessels to nerve tissue and act like blood phagocytes by removing cellular debris from the brain. Endothelial cells line the blood vessels of the central nervous system. 2> HIV infects the Langerhans cells in our skin. Langerhans cells are part of the immune surveillance system. They send out long spindaly branches to trap foreign materials entering through the skin and then process them for presentation to nearby T cells. 3> HIV infects and reproduces in the bone marrow. NIAID researchers (Thomas M. Folks) demonstrated that cells in the marrow became "virtual bags of virus or wall-to-wall-virus." 4> HIV infects local tissues in the rectum and the female reproductive tract as well as in the intestines. Soooo, UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT ONE WELL COOKED AND MOST PROBABLY DEAD PATIENT, HYPERTHERMIA IS NOT A PLAUSIBLE CURE FOR AIDS. MEDIUM RARE JUST WON'T CUT IT ! But, more importantly, if you are relying on the popular media, including major newspapers for your source of AIDS information, you are being terribly misinformed. As Randy Shilts explains, the '80's ushered in journalism by press release - blindly repeating what ever is fed to them. Investigative reporting, at least with AIDS, is rare or non-existant. -- Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!135!38!Wounded.Bird Internet: Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org