Stem cell research leading the way. Cancer, your days are numbered.

[mmajunkie]

Http://WWW.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/hiv-cure-berlin-patient_n_796521.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=830614,b=facebook

[Imoutgoodbye]

Amazing, but forgive my skepticism with the numerous variables involved with the Berlin Patient.

A good start to say the least, but with science, I've found it best to keep my joy at bay and let the experiments begin.

[The End]

Stem cells and nanobots will be the next breakthrough in medical history. It is awesome to think about the possibilities that are in front of our faces with Stem Cells. When we develop the ability to sterilize the body from infections and virus we will be able to cure almost anything in the body. Take that with some gene manipulation and we could cure disease as we know it today. A cold 100 years from now could be viewed as badly as cancer is today (exaggeration)

[The-Nameless]

Cornell university just made a fully functional guitar that is 100 atoms wide.

[Pali]

A good start to say the least' date=' but with science, I've found it best to keep my joy at bay and let the experiments begin.[/quote']

Very wise.

[Liadon Xiloscient]

I'm excited for any step towards these projects...

I'm tired of loosing people to it....

[mmajunkie]

Me too Lia.

[Pali]

For those curious...

What happened here was that a man with HIV-1 developed leukemia. Chemotherapy was applied that killed off most of the cancerous cells (and also killed off most of the HIV cells), and he was then given a bone-marrow transplant from a person who is naturally immune to HIV (the donor's blood lacks a receptor that HIV requires to enter your cells). In other words, most of this guy's infected cells were destroyed, and then he was given bone-marrow that created cells that could not be infected.

Sadly, this is a very long way from any sort of feasible cure - it was a protracted, unpleasant, expensive and dangerous series of treatments that are applicable only in very limited circumstances. It IS cool, though, that things worked out so well for this guy.

[The-Nameless]

well he is very lucky to have survived all that.

My mother has beaten lymphoma, and is fighting leukemia.

[The End]

For those curious...

What happened here was that a man with HIV-1 developed leukemia. Chemotherapy was applied that killed off most of the cancerous cells (and also killed off most of the HIV cells), and he was then given a bone-marrow transplant from a person who is naturally immune to HIV (the donor's blood lacks a receptor that HIV requires to enter your cells). In other words, most of this guy's infected cells were destroyed, and then he was given bone-marrow that created cells that could not be infected.

Sadly, this is a very long way from any sort of feasible cure - it was a protracted, unpleasant, expensive and dangerous series of treatments that are applicable only in very limited circumstances. It IS cool, though, that things worked out so well for this guy.

HIV is a virus and is not affected by radiation or chemo therapies. There is no immunity to HIV just different cell receptors that the virus can attach to in order to invade the cell. (there are different strains of HIV but the most common is unable to bind to a certain cell receptor found in about 3% of the population).

There are two huge breakthrough with this study that are amazing.

1. Man survived having his immune system completely destroyed and rebuilt with stem cells.

2. Matched a non-match donor with an immunity to a recipient. <<

What this means in the big picture (way down the road) is that not only is it possible to grow things like organs and lost tissue. You will be able to regrow limbs and possibly double life spans with less aging that we have today. :-D

[KRins]

You can match a non-matching donor if you suppress the immune system of the recipient... been known for as long as transplants. Said suppression must be to a potentially fatal level... such a cancer patient receiving chemotherapy and radiation. They didn't discover too much people... just that two pieces can fit together in a new and interesting way.

That being said... knowing these two pieces go together CAN lead to deeper and more meaningful discoveries. I am not trying to be a hater or anything, I walk across the stage to graduate college on Saturday without my grandfather who basically was my father for the first 5 years of my life due to cancer. I know how much the disease can hurt those it isn't even inhabiting... but when someone cries something from a mountaintop... the wise man waits for SEVERAL other people to reproduce the same results.

Side note: The Huffington Post is only slightly more credible than Wikipedia. Don't trust a source who is owned by a person willing to go on television for money to spout blatantly false Liberal rhetoric (this is coming from a professed Liberal. She literally makes me want to puke boiling battery acid when she tries to make any point of her own beyond reposting the views and findings of others.)

[Pali]

Wikipedia is, in many ways, MUCH more credible than HuffPo. Wikipedia may have a bad rap, but analysis has found it to be highly reliable.

[KRins]

Wikipedia is' date=' in many ways, MUCH more credible than HuffPo. Wikipedia may have a bad rap, but analysis has found it to be highly reliable.

Was said analysis ran before or after their team of fact checkers ran over the pages they selected? If you get a wikipedia page that wasn't on the "hey let's make sure people aren't talking out of their backsides" list for a while, it can have some hilariously false statements. I can promise you I've seen insane things on Wikipedia... for instance... for a while the definition of 42 was "Bob Drake's answer to all questions." based entirely on my journalism class deciding to prove to a particular student that her paper with wikipedia citations cannot compare in any way to the rest of our papers with peer-reviewed citations.

[Pali]

Which is why, when reading any encyclopedia, it pays to pay attention to the sources... which Wikipedia helpfully lists at the bottom of the page. It's very, very easy to tell good Wikipedia entries from bad ones.

The rather basic understanding of the case I received from here, a science blog run by a grad student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients/populations. Considering how little I care about this individual case, I'm content with this source... if you're not, find better ones.

[KRins]

I am not hating on your research at all. You know how to conduct actual research. I am skeptical of it being some magic cure-all right now though due to the unique patient and the findings not being reproduced as of yet. I mean... we could all just decide that going to Michigan State, being a center with point guard handles and passing, and winning championships with the Showtime Lakers is the cure to aids too if it worked for Magic Johnson... point is... show me Berlin Patient #2 with said Berlin not being the EXACT same team in the same facility and I'll be less of a prickly porcupine.

[The-Nameless]

I have had more than my share of run ins with Cancer patients. My mother being the primary, but one of several.

To make such a bold claim as cancer is gone is an incredibly tasteless statement as well. The facts of the matter, of all leukemia patients to have ever existed, the Berlin patient is the only one to have had such a miracle. While it may be a stepping stone for (much) more future research and trials, it is hardly a cure for cancer.

Keep noted that 1 in 3 bone marrow recipients die from the procedure. 30% mortality rate for the existing "cure". Pardon my skeptisism as well.

[Mudder]

I didn't interpret what anyone wrote as cancer being gone or cured, but a future prediction of what is to come.

[Kyzarius]

reading the article the cure was for HIV.

[Croyvern]

Pistachios are the miracle cancer treatment. Look it up. I have been using this treatment for years and I stand here (alive and kicking) shouting it from the mountain. :eek: No kidding.

[The-Nameless]

Reading the title, the post was centered more around cancer, than aids. Though it cured both seemingly.

[Pali]

The transplant happened to cure both, though the procedure would usually only have worked against the cancer - it only worked against the HIV because the transplanted bone marrow came from an HIV-immune patient.

[The End]

You can match a non-matching donor if you suppress the immune system of the recipient... been known for as long as transplants. Said suppression must be to a potentially fatal level... such a cancer patient receiving chemotherapy and radiation. They didn't discover too much people... just that two pieces can fit together in a new and interesting way.)

This is not right. You can suppress an immune system to accept a matching donor only (93% and above) and even then there is a 50/50 shot it will work. Immuno suppressants only work if the organ is close enough that the entire body doesn't reject it.

This case study is very meaningful because it has demonstrated on a live human subject that stem cells can be used to transplant non-matching (I believe the match in this study was only 42% but I don't have the published research at home) tissue into another donor and have that tissue function. The leukemia was cured with the marrow and that marrow transplant was made possible through stem cell research.

The cure for cancer could be here tomorrow or 1,000 years from now. This study is just one more step on to the discovery and anyone with cancer should be very excited to know that steps are still being made every day. I don't think anyone is saying this is close to a cure but it is going in the right direction.

[mmajunkie]

Exactly. It's a significant step closer.