HIV/AIDS
sa smith | January 23, 2009This is, quite possibly, one of the weirdest examples of convergent evolution I have ever seen.
I dont want to get ahead of myself, but HIV-1 transactivator protein (Tat) and Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus P19 are totally interchangeable. HIV and TBSV arent related, like, at all... yet two of their parts are interchangeable...
This is so weird.
Let me elaborate.
Plants dont have immune systems like you and I (dir), but they have evolved their own ways of dealing with viral infections. Because most plant viruses have RNA genomes (RNA genomes can slide from cell to cell via plasmodesmata, berry…
sa smith | January 19, 2009If there is one constant ever present in anti-science groups, whether its Creationists, anti-vaxers, anti-wireless-interneters, whatever-- its the groups ignorance on the very topic they are 'anti'.
HIV Deniers are no exception. One of my favorite HIV Deniers, a blonde bimbo named Rebecca Culshaw ('I IZ NUT BIMBOS I HAS DEGREE IN MATHS! THAT MEANS HIV IS A LIE!'), is a god damned idiot that doesnt even know the difference between an 'endogenous' retrovirus, and an 'exogenous' retrovirus, but feels she is in a position to lecture to the scientific community about HIV.
Orac has a great post…
sa smith | January 15, 2009Gawd I love doing HIV-1 research. Stuff that takes big-stuff-biologists millions of years to watch, we can figure out in a few weeks. Case in point: PZs post yesterday on 'latent evolutionary potential'.
Ah, the realization of latent evolutionary potential. Did you know that you have latent evolutionary potential? Sure. If we put you and your family and friends in a novel environment, and let the generations tick by, we'll discover that certain sets of traits will become more prominent as selection and drift take their toll. The phrase does not imply that there is a purposeful arrangement…
sa smith | January 9, 2009Via Ed Brayton, more on Rick Warrens oh-so-helpful HIV 'activism':
Warren's man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country's First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa's stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison…
sporte | January 8, 2009AIDS, to me, is such a scary horrible disease that it seems that all of us would naturally support a cure and work together stop it from spreading. I even forced my family to watch a movie on AIDS over the holidays. (And the Band Played On, based on a book with same title by Randy Shilts, who died of AIDS in 1994).
That's why I was astounded to read last night, at the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) news site, that the Iranian government has put two doctors in prison - doctors who specialize in treating AIDS patients. The PHR, if you're wondering, is well known for supporting human…
sa smith | January 5, 2009One of more genuinely stupid comments I hear about HIV-1 research goes along these lines:
Why we spenden so much moneys on HIV when we aint got no vaccine and we could be spendin it on cancer/heart disease/diabeetus/whatever disease I personally am at risk for?
No, we dont have a vaccine for HIV-1 yet. But that doesnt mean HIV-1 research for the past 25 years has been 'worthless'. HIV-1 research has wildly expanded our understanding of the human immune system, ie helps all of us.
*rolleyes*
The field has also developed an army of assays, cell lines, reagents, a million tools for…
sa smith | December 29, 2008Creationists and HIV Deniers, gawd bless em.
So like, remember a while back when Andy Schlafly, Creationist of Conservapedia wrote PNAS demanding raw data, reagents, etc from Richard Lenski? And if Lenski refused to deliver that stuff to Schlafly (and his crack team of home schooled children) for 'peer review', then PNAS should retract the paper and Evilution is a Lie?
Well, HIV Deniers thought that was a friggen brilliant idea. Forty well respected HIV-1 researchers have gone and done the same thing, demanding Science retract a 24 year old paper of Robert Gallos because it doesnt suit…
sa smith | December 18, 2008UPDATE 1/9/09-- More RIck Warrens anti-activism.
When I found out yesterday that Rick Warren was speaking at Obamas inauguration, I was pretty grossed out. Grossed out, and confused. Obama and Warren appear to be polar opposites... but whatever. Its Obamas party, he can invite whoever he wants.
I didnt care.
Until I read how Obama was justifying this decision:
Pastor Rick Warren has a long history of activism on behalf of the disadvantaged and the downtrodden. He's devoted his life to performing good works for the poor and leads the evangelical movement in addressing the global HIV/AIDS…
sa smith | December 1, 2008Just in time for World AIDS day, the folks who discovered tetherin have a new paper out:Broad-spectrum inhibition of retroviral and filoviral particle release by tetherin.
Just a quick summary-- Neil et al looked at the evolution of an HIV-1 protein, Vpu, and said 'something is going on here.' That 'something' turned out to be a previously unidentified component of your innate immune system. Rather than a physiological (skin) or cellular (macrophage) component, its kinda a chemical/protein component, like interferon gamma-- tetherin.
What happens, is that when a virus infects a cell (any…
sa smith | November 17, 2008Ive totally been a Debbie Downer lately.
I dont mean to be, its just that I really friggen hate it when main-stream media trumpets the latest, greatest 'CURE FOR AIDS OMFG'-- and then 10 years later scientists have to explain to the general public why we havent cured AIDS yet.
Why cant reporters just say 'Hey this is really cool, might contribute to a treatment for HIV/AIDS in the future'?
But again, I dont mean to be a Debbie Downer. I wouldnt be in this field of research if I didnt believe we had a chance of kicking HIV-1s butt some day. We do have a few things going in our favor in this…
sa smith | November 13, 2008Oh for Petes sake.
*sigh*
Okay, there are two potential targets for an HIV-1 vaccine:
1-- The envelope protein. Its the only HIV-1 protein that your antibodies can see. Antibodies can prevent the viruses from attaching to your cells.
2-- The structural proteins in gag. These proteins are presented really well in MHC I molecules of infected cells. Thus cytotoxic T-cells will roll along and kill any cell thats infected with HIV-1.
Your body will react to HIV-1 in this manner 'naturally', without a vaccine. The problem is, the 'natural' response to HIV infection is reactive-- Its always a…
sa smith | November 10, 2008File this under "Whoa thats cool! But its not really a realistic solution for the AIDS pandemic."
It sounds like a cruel joke, but HIV patients have increased odds of developing leukemias and lymphomas. These cancers arent necessarily directly related to HIV (there is no reason to think HIV-1 is directly causing the cancer, like HPV and cervical cancer), but because of this relationship, an obvious question comes up: How the hell do you treat someone with leukemia and HIV?
A hospital in Germany tried something I cant believe no one has tried before... They gave a patient regular…
sa smith | October 13, 2008There was a lot wrong with Micheal 'Lilo' Behes description of HIV-1 in last years book, 'Edge of Evolution'. There is a lot of discussion in the Evilutionist community as to what constitutes a Creationist, but there are a few mistakes Creationists continually make when trying to argue against evilution, especially regarding 'mutations'.
Despite Lilos acceptance of common descent and educational training as a biochemist, he made the same childish mistakes Creationists make when they are wrestling with 'mutation':
Because of the difference in mutation rates HIV has actually experienced about…
scientificactivist | October 6, 2008The winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine have been announced, and the prize has been awarded for early discoveries that have subsequently led to vaccines or treatments of two widespread virus-caused diseases. Half of the prize was awarded to Harald zur Hausen "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer" and one-fourth each was awarded to Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus." For more, check out the official press release or the more detailed description of the prize-winning…
sa smith | October 2, 2008Holy crap.
Do you guys remember how Per Ahlberg got his big break? He sifted through the fossil collection at the London Natural History Museum, found friggen tetrapod?
Someone just did the same thing with HIV-1.
Michael Worobey dug through prehistoric (1960s hehe) tissue samples hunting for early HIV-1 sequences.
Now by 'tissue samples' I dont mean nicely labeled bits of tissue, organized and cataloged in bright fluorescent boxes, in perfect little cryovials, stored at -80 C.
I mean dude dug through chunks of flesh soaked in formaldehyde and embedded in wax, and have been sitting at room…
sporte | September 30, 2008HealthMap is a great site that could be an excellent resource when teaching a biology, microbiology, or health class. Not to mention, I can picture people using it before they travel somewhere or even just for fun.
I learned about HealthMap awhile ago from Mike the Mad Biologist, but I didn't get time to play with the site until today.
Here's an example to see how it works.
How do I use HealthMap?
I begin using HealthMap by changing the number of diseases selected to "none."
Then I scrolled through the list until I found something interesting. I chose "Poisoning." The number of…
sporte | September 27, 2008One of the holy grails of modern medicine is the development of a vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDs. An obstacle to attaining this goal has been the difficulty in stimulating the immune system to make it produce the right kinds of antibodies. A recent finding in Science describes a gene that controls production of these antibodies and may provide insights to the development of an effective vaccine. (1).
Antibodies are special kinds of proteins that bind to things, often very tightly. If they bind to the right molecules, they can prevent viruses from infecting cells and target…
sa smith | September 12, 2008There are two questions I get over and over and over again from friends, family members, readers, etc about HIV-1:
1. Will we ever get a vaccine?
2. How come some people who are infected with HIV-1 never get AIDS, and some people succumb very quickly?
Ive already touched on Q1 a couple of times, I think it is about time I posted on Q2.
From my sterile perspective as a researcher, we categorize patients by how fast they progress to AIDS. Usually people are just 'progressors', they get infected and slowly progress to AIDS over the course of a decade or so. However, there is a gradient of how…
sa smith | August 6, 2008I complain about crappy science journalism a lot. So I better give journalists and scientists a high-five when they do something right-- And Nikhil Swaminathan dun gud. Sure Im annoyed at him for calling HIV-1 a 'bug' (people know what a virus is), but he asked Anthony Fauci the *right* questions (and Dr. Fauci gave the *right* answers :P)
HIV Vaccine Research: "Swimming in the Dark"
Swaminathan wanted to know why we dont have an HIV-1 vaccine, despite scientists promising one year after year after year. He wanted to know why making an HIV-1 vaccine was so hard (seriously, why could they…
sa smith | July 5, 2008Something odd has been happening recently.
Every time I make a post on HIV, I get the same comment from someone named 'Apostle Shada Mishe'. The first time I didnt let it through because its over 1,000 words long, and just looks like spam, but if he came back and protested, I woulda approved it.
But he didnt protest.
He just posted the exact same comment with the exact same formatting (including pressing 'enter' before he started typing). Never 'I tried to post this before, blah blah blah.' Never 'UR A NAZI AND SUPRESSING MAH MESAGGE!'
The exact same comment, once, on every post on HIV.
So…