HIV/AIDS
denialism | January 6, 2012When Duesberg was recently given space in Scientific American I think the blogosphere was rightly chagrinned that they would give space to a crank whose crackpot ideas are thought to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. But it seemed at the time he had been keeping his denialism on the down low, maybe appearing to have given up on his crank view that HIV does not cause AIDS. Not so anymore. He's back, and has secured publication of a paper denying HIV/AIDS in an Italian Journal.
The title, AIDS since 1984: No evidence for a new, viral epidemic - not even in Africa, seems…
sa smith | December 13, 2011Once you are infected with HIV-1, you are screwed.
Yes, we have antiretroviral therapies, but you will never be cured. You will never be free from the virus. And there is always a chance that the virus you are infected with will become resistant to the antiretroviral drugs used (this isnt just a distant chance, it does happen, regularly).
So the best way to 'stop' HIV/AIDS is to stop that initial infection from ever occurring.
We have condoms, and those work pretty damn well, but that is assuming people actually use them, and use them properly.
We have also tried giving high-risk people…
sa smith | December 12, 2011While you all are having a good time making fun of PZ Myers for bravely outing a dead Russian (damn zombie trolls!), I figured it would be a good time to talk about Anons in HIV World.
Okay, so, I do HIV-1 research. The first thing everyone says when I mention this is "Oh my god! Arent you afraid you are going to infect yourself??" and my answer is a 100% "Not really."
First of all, HIV-1 is not *that* scary-- its not airborne, spill a little you just squirt some EtOH or lysol on it and its dead. The only way I could infect myself would be if I like, STABBED my hand through two pairs of…
sa smith | November 29, 2011One problem we have to deal with in HIV-1 world (of the many problems we have to deal with) is that no one is 'cured' of HIV/AIDS (except this guy).
So people who are infected go on to infect more people, who go on to infect more people, who go on to infect more people... I mean thats how we *got* a pandemic.
So since we cant get rid of HIV-1 once it has infected someone, it means the trick to stopping the pandemic is to stop new infections. Interrupt the dominoes falling, protect the down-stream dominoes.
We have a way of doing that: condoms.
But for any number of reasons, condoms are not…
sa smith | November 23, 2011Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?
I like to get the bad news first, usually, because then the good news can cheer me up. So, the bad news:
Kim Bannon has Passed Away
(back-story on Kim Bannon)
HIV-1 Denial claimed another life. It was reported that (HIV-1 positive) HIV-1 Denier Kim Bannon was doing very poorly last year, but she apparently hung on until now. She died last week. Her life did so much harm to HIV/AIDS education and awareness... I hope her death can reverse some of the damage...
Edit to add:
Apparently (HIV-1 negative) HIV-1 Denier Lynn Margulis has died as…
sa smith | November 15, 2011Quick recap of ERVs for new readers of ERV (or long-time readers who have forgotten!)--
ERVs are retroviruses that accidentally infected an egg/sperm cell, and became a permanent part of that egg/sperms DNA. That egg/sperm then went on to successfully generate a viable embryo, and because that retrovirus was part of the egg/sperms DNA, it also becomes a permanent part of the organisms DNA.
Though this is a very very rare, totally accidental event, on an evolutionary time-scale, random events have happened quite a few times, to the point where a large chunk of your, *your* DNA, is…
sa smith | September 19, 2011Of the many things that annoy me about Creationists, one Im going to focus on today is their child-like understanding of biochemistry and what actually goes on inside of a cell.
They put out these pretty animations (well, they put out 'animations' copied from pretty animations) and everything is so cutesy and perfect and multicolored and smooth...
Yeah, stuff dont look like that in real life.
And those 'artistic renditions' are just that. Artistic renditions. We dont stare into our microscopes and see this stuff happening-- its too friggen small. So we go through all of these elaborate…
sa smith | September 12, 2011Dear Sally Kern--
GO AWAY. NO ONE LIKES YOU.
Yours in Christ--
--ERV
Good Ol Sally Kern is in the news again, repeating the same BS that a hateful piece of shit, Fred Pope, was saying that helped drive a gay boy to suicide this time last year.
Yaaaaay...
Actual quote:
You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we've had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the…
sa smith | August 24, 2011Long-time readers of SciBlogs might remember the physicians and nurses working in Libya in the late 1990s, who were accused of purposefully infecting children with HIV-1, the "Tripoli 6".
Science established that they were innocent.
Basic logic established they were innocent (not only was there no motive for intentionally infecting children, or precedent with past behaviors, but unintentional infections due to improper sanitation in hospitals is a stock-standard thing we have to deal with in HIV World, even in a time as modern as the 1990s).
But the Libyan government did not want to own up…
sa smith | August 23, 2011I have some surprising news for my homosexual ERV readers: In the state of Florida, youre all virgins!
The judges found that because the law referenced 'sexual intercourse' that it could only be applied to heterosexual activity since intercourse is only defined as "the penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ."
Why the hell am I writing about this? Some stupid backwater judge or politician trying to regulate sex? Nope...
Because the wording of this law is being used to overturn convictions of individuals who did not disclose their HIV+ status to their sexual partners:
An…
sa smith | July 29, 2011Just in case you missed it on Sunday, you can now download/stream my talk on HIV-1 with Skeptically Speaking!
#122 HIV and AIDS
BONUS: This recording includes a chat with Dr. Peter Leone on HPV too!
sa smith | July 27, 2011This has been out for some time, but I was just linked to it by my Facebook friend, Brian-- a really cool model of HIV-1, inside and out, based off of "more then 100 latest scientific publications in the fields of virology, X-ray analysis and NMR spectroscopy. The depicted spatial configurations of 17 different viral and cellular proteins found in HIV particle are in strict accordance with known 3D-structures."
This isnt just an 'artistic rendition'-- its an artistic rendition founded on the best science to date ;)
Human Immunodeficiency Virus model
Now, if that image doesnt mean a whole…
sa smith | July 21, 2011I suck! Desiree Schelle has been trying to get me on Skeptically Speaking since, like, last December, and I keep getting busy and putting it off and then I was like "GHA I SUCK NAME A DATE!"
So Im going to be on her show this Sunday to talk about HIV-1!
We record live with Abbie Smith on Sunday, July 24 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, July 29.
And theeeen, after some scheduling rearrangements, Im actually going to get to speak July 30th at the inaugural conference for Oklahoma skeptics and freethinkers, FreeOK! Its $10 for a day of speakers:
AND…
sa smith | July 12, 2011Despite his apparent random and brief moments of lucidity, I cant say Im a 'big fan' of Oklahoma senator and physician Tom Coburn (click here to read his completely insane 'analysis' of HIV/AIDS). He says hes 'PRO-LIFE' yet he held up funds for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in Africa because some of the organizations that would receive this funding offer family planning services which include abortion services.
Killing 'babies' while they are unfeeling, unthinking barely multicellular organisms: BAD!
Killing very real, very thinking, very feeling babies via long, painful deaths via AIDS…
sa smith | July 7, 2011I have written quite a bit about Cytotoxic-T-Cell-based HIV-1 vaccines here on ERV. Though antibodies can target HIV-1 viruses, and HIV-1 infected cells, CTLs should be the go-to workhorses for killing HIV-1 infected cells.
Pimped-up Souped-up Bionic Assassin Lethal Weapon Killer T-Cells as a cure for AIDS?
HIV-1 CTL Vaccine: OH SHI-
HIV-1 Vaccine: Again, OH SHI-
HIV-1 CTL Vaccine: lol, we are screwed.
HIV-1: Humans are all pink on the inside. Pink, and CD4+ T-cells.
Found another one:
HIV-1 CTL Vaccine: $%@#!
Because HIV-1 is a virus, it uses all of the host cells machinery to produce…
sa smith | July 6, 2011Nef.
The bane of my existence for some time now.
I dont talk much about my research here, but its safe to say I consider myself an inventor who works in virology. People say "Damn. Its so hard to do ___. I wish there was an easier way..." and Im like "... I can do that."
Gimme a plasmid, a primer (just need one), a paperclip, and a package of 'Fruit Stripe' gum, and I can make your retroviral dreams come true.
I make stuff, and then pass it off to other people to like, do research with it.
So I made myself a couple new toys. I then have to characterize my toys so other researchers know how…
sa smith | June 6, 2011Ive gotten over 9,000 emails on this guy:
First man 'functionally cured' of HIV
Doctors claim to have "functional cure" for HIV
The Berlin Patient, first reports of an AIDS Cure
Special Report - An end to AIDS?
This is the same guy Ive written about a couple times before. Its real great for him, immahappyforhim. But this is a really rare thing under really rare circumstances with a not-likely outcome. Dude is lucky, in innumerable ways. Everyone isnt and would not be that lucky. We cannot go into a rural village in Zambia and cure everyone there of HIV/AIDS with bone marrow transplants…
sa smith | May 16, 2011Cytomegalovirus is one of those ubiquitous viruses. Pretty much everyone on Earth is infected with it, and if you arent, you probably will be at some point in your life.
Some scientists got the idea to use CMV as a gene delivery system for HIV-1-- 'Infecting' cells with 'HIV' without actually infecting cells with HIV, meaning 'CMV/HIV infected' cells express HIV proteins and train the immune system to respond to an HIV infection, in the absence of actual HIV.
Profound early control of highly pathogenic SIV by an effector memory T-cell vaccine
This vaccine trained macaques Cytotoxic T-cells…
sa smith | May 13, 2011CTL-based vaccines and HIV-1.
Ive written about them quite a few times here on ERV.
Quick recap-- All of your cells fly 'flags' that show circulating cytotoxic T-cells what proteins they are making. Normally, a virus-infected cell will put up virus/pirate 'flags', the T-cell will 'see' something is wrong, and convince the infected cell to commit suicide. This process is thwarted by HIV-1 numerous ways, so infected cells arent killed. Some people can 'see' the HIV-1 'pirate flags', so they (kind of) control HIV better, but HIV is evolving ways around this. As a whole, the HIV-1 population…
sa smith | April 25, 2011Its no secret that Im not a huge fan of the antibody hunter branch of the HIV-1 research world-- they search through thousands and thousands and thousands of B-cells looking for one or two that can perform a neat trick. They are brilliant people working really hard doing things that have limited application in the real world, and give us limited insight into the basics of HIV-1 virology, but boy howdy, theyve got a great PR department, and Science/Nature eat their publications up.
Identifying broadly neutralizing antibodies is 'neat', but those antibodies are of limited value. The people…