Sunday, February 17, 2013

Possible Cure To HIV

Summary-

File:HIV-infected H9 T cell.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HIV-infected_H9_T_cell.jpg
This article is about discovering a new protein that has the possibility of blocking the HIV virus. Researchers at UCLA intially found that 25HC inhibited HIV in cell structures dramatically. The oxysterol called 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC) is able to permeate a cell's wall and block a virus from entering. The team administered 25HC to mice that were implanted with human tissues and found that it significantly reduced the HIV amounts within the next seven days. It was also found that the 25HC reversed the T-cell depletion caused by HIV. The oxysterol 25HC is not only found to inhibit HIV from entering a cell, but it is also found to stop the growth of other deadly viruses, such as Ebola, Nipah and the Rift Valley Fever virus. HIV has cause so many deaths in the world that it is hard to imagine a world free of it. So I now ask you, what would the world be like without HIV and these other deadly viruses?

NOS Themes:
  • Science is collaborative- A team of UCLA researchers conducted this experiment.
  • Science is based on evidence- The researchers collected lots of data during this experiment.
  • Science is subject to debate and tenative- This is the beginning of research for this team and "the researchers still need to compare 25HC's antiviral effect against other HIV antivirals."
Link to the Article: Newly Identified Natural Protein Blocks HIV, Other Deadly Viruses

2 comments:

  1. I first noticed another theme: the role of motivation and curiosity. Because HIV is a disease that affects so many, there is obviously a lot of motivation to study this and find a cure.
    http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/255306.php
    Also, this article is amazing and talks about how at Stanford, they have engineered HIV resistant T-cells. There is clearly lots of HIV curiosity and research going on everywhere!

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  2. I think that the world would be a much better place without HIV, and Seth Hotchkiss wrote about a toddler that was basically cured of HIV, and he also talked about how it is still up to debate on weather or not this cure is real.

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