HIV-1
sa smith | May 18, 2010Hey do you guys remember Michael Behe? Massive douche, wrote books about how EVILUTION IS IMPOSSI-BLEH! Gave school boards/teachers an excuse to teach Creationism in public school classrooms and pretend they were teaching science? He was like, the cock-of-the-walk when 'Darwins Black Box' came out, but then he made a total ass of himself testifying in Dover, and then he wrote that massive abortion, 'Edge of Evolution', and now dude has pretty much disappeared off Planet Earth?
Well, while Michael 'Lilo' Behe might be gone, he has not been forgotten!
Ancient adaptive evolution of Tetherin…
sa smith | May 13, 2010This post is really frustrating to write.
Its frustrating because this paper could (should) be FANTASTICALLY COOL, but it was just really frustrating to read:
Mosaic HIV-1 vaccines expand the breadth and depth of cellular immune responses in rhesus monkeys
You all know there is a TON of genetic diversity in HIV-1. That has been a huge barrier for vaccine design. You put one HIV-1 variant in a vaccine, people are exposed to another, they still get sick. Our vaccines are eliciting a very narrow immune response. Our immune systems are only seeing exactly what our vaccine tells it to see.
We…
sa smith | April 1, 2010One of the coolest things I learned last week in Banff is the 'why' behind an odd AIDS phenomena:
So you all might know that the cut-off, the mark for being diagnosed with AIDS (and not just 'HIV-1+') is a CD4+ T-cell count of <200 cells/mm3.
Okay, so, you lose all your CD4+ T-cells, your immune system loses its ability to work properly, and you start getting all these secondary infections-- infections that 'healthy' people get, but they arent a big deal. But secondary infections are a big deal to AIDS patients, I mean, thats what they die of, not the HIV-1 specifically.
What is weird, is…
sa smith | March 20, 2010AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Know how a while back, when I let that 'House of Numbers' spam through for the lulz?
Well, apparently that spam was sent by a real human, not a spambot. Like, a real breathing human with no life.
Cause humanspambot took that comment going through as an opportunity to spam numerous other posts on ERV, sometimes the same post repeatedly. The exact, same, message.
Since I approved the other spam, poor ERV thought it was supposed to let them all through, so I had to manually trash them all. I then sent a short polite email to the email address associated with the comments…
sa smith | March 15, 2010[insert random collection of Ray Comfort jokes here]
Well, this is a welcome bit of good news!
A lectin isolated from bananas is a potent inhibitor of HIV replication.
Lectins are proteins that bind to specific sugars. For example, in humans, lets say you are infected with Staphylococus aureus. Your human lectins ignore 'your' sugar, but they recognize that the bacteria are making the 'wrong' sugar, and stick to them. This sets off a cascade of events that ends with the bacteria getting blown up.
Swanson et al have found a lectin in bananas ('BanLec', heh) that really likes high-mannose…
sa smith | March 3, 2010Your immune system is like an onion ogre parfait.
Its has lots and lots of layers.
You have intrensic immunity-- Abilities every single one of your cells has to defend itself from viruses. VpuTetherin would be a good example of this, as would APOBEC and Trim5a. Pick a cell in your body-- it can make these proteins. Doesnt have to be a special immune cell.
Then you have innate immunity-- Certain immune cells are not specific for any particular pathogen, but they can identify patterns that are 'wrong'. They see things your body knows aint right, like double-stranded RNA (your body doesnt…
sa smith | March 1, 2010HIV-1 deniers-- They love Orac. They love Tara. Even like haunting the Hoofnagle brothers a bit.
They dont like ERV.
Never have.
*sad face*
I really cant figure out why. (I bet its cause Im mean and kannut com00nicates scienz).
Three years ago, today, I posted a challenge to HIV-1 Deniers. A simple test of basic HIV-1 literacy and competency. Three years ago... and it only has three comments. One from a supporter, one from me, and one from an HIV-1 Denier... who didnt answer the question. Just linked to the nutty Perth Group and hoped something Perth said stuck (nothing on the linked…
sa smith | February 25, 2010From building bridges with anti-vaxers to building bridges with animal liberation maniacs, Chris Mooneys 'building bridges' plan is revolutionizing the way scientists interact with insane people!
Its even changing the playing field with HIV-1 Deniers.
Long-time readers know I have relatively little patience with HIV-1 Deniers. Everyone involved with HIV Denial, from the 'professional scientists' to the 'Average Joe snake-oil salesman' are complete and utter morons. So, frankly, they are only good for one thing: lulz.
So while I like writing about the latest HIV-1 findings on ERV, I rarely…
sa smith | February 15, 2010Last week I wrote about a disappointing study where they found that treating people infected with HIV-1 and HSV-2 with acyclovir didnt decrease their rates of HIV-1 transmission to their partners... even though they had lower HIV-1 viral loads, and fewer HSV-2 outbreaks.
Really disappointing.
Well, that same group reanalyzed their data from a different angle: The people who got acyclovir, how did that effect their progression to AIDS?
Daily aciclovir for HIV-1 disease progression in people dually infected with HIV-1 and herpes simplex virus type 2: a randomised placebo-controlled trial--
Our…
sa smith | February 11, 2010I refer to this so often-- I need to make a name for it.
A name for how Creationists are always parading about saying protein structures are so perfect and pretty colorful Lego blocks, and they all snap together perfectly, but reality is SO not like that? Reality is a buzzing, floppy, invisible mess?
Invisible is the key word here-- Scientists cant look into their microscopes and watch 'Inner Life of a Cell' in real-time.
Figuring out what protein structures 'look like' is really damn hard.
Example #1: VSV, Vesicular Stomatitis Virus? It is like, and old-school virus. Old-school. Like,…
sa smith | February 9, 2010Acyclovir and Transmission of HIV-1 from Persons Infected with HIV-1 and HSV-2.
--Daily acyclovir therapy did not reduce the risk of transmission of HIV-1, despite a reduction in plasma HIV-1 RNA of 0.25 log10 copies per milliliter and a 73% reduction in the occurrence of genital ulcers due to HSV-2.
Well crap.
Im sure you all can figure out from that one sentence in that abstract why this is disappointing, but let me give you the back story.
Way back in the 1990s, scientists noticed that HIV-1 and HSV-2 were able to form this awful, unholy alliance. Proteins made by HSV-2 could increase…