Virus Discovered in Human Relative Could Help Cure AIDS
Rob Gifford and Robert Shafer scientists at Stanford School of Medicine recently found a virus in Lemurs that could make finding a cure for AIDS much easier. The type of virus found in the Lemur is in the group called lentiviruses, which is significant because HIV is also a lentivirus. They found this virus by scanning 21 different primates for a certain sequence of nucleotides that make modern lentiviruses and the Lemur was the one with a match. Lentiviruses were thought to only be around 1 million years old but this discovery links them between 75-85 million years old, giving the scientists plenty of possible leads to the beginning of HIV. This finding along with the recent discovery that lentivirus can have some heritibility to them will make it easier for scientists to trace the evolution of HIV maybe leading to a possible cure.
article
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081201200113.htm
Charles Scondras
posted by PWH @ 7:44 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
What exactly is a lentivirus? Did any of the other primates have a similar sequence of nucleotides that could imply a possible connection to HIV?
So I'm a little confused. What is a lentivirus? You said that HIV is a lentivirus, so do the lemurs have HIV or something else?
-Cecelia Hunt
Interesting, I am also unclear waht a lentivirus is, is it a type of virus and HIV and what teh lemurs have is a subsect of it?
Erica Damon
I will be repetitive and ask what a lentivirus is as well. How exactly can this lead us to the cure? Is it the exact same thing that humans have, and if so, would Lemurs have HIV? If so, why didn't they realise this sooner if Lemurs were sick? I wonder why only Lemurs have the link closest to us as well.
-Alyson Paige
Interesting article. Never would of thought a virus in a Lemur would somehow be like one us humans can contract. So do you think it is possible that humans got the HIV virus from a Lemur? :) Did they mention whether or not the lentivirus can be transmitted between groups of different species, or whether they know? Since there may be some heritability, likely it may not be able to be transmitted, but then again HIV can be transmitted through genes and contact with the virus..so..Interesting. It should be interesting as to what comes of this discovery.
Katie Cole
This is very interesting. I am also confused as to what a lentivirus is and how they made the connection to HIV. But it would be awesome if it works.
Amanda Joyce
It would be amazing is they could find a cure for AIDS. But, what is a lentivirus? Is it what makes up HIV or is it HIV? Also, if it is HIV how are these primates living with HIV? I will definitely being following up on this, it's very interesting.
Chantal Gomes
So do lemurs have/carry HIV? Is a lentivirus the AIDS virus and thus transmisable to humans? I don't exactly understand how this will find a cure? I do hope it does though.
Mia DiFabbio
I'm glad to hear that scientists are finding more ways to find possible cure for HIV. Can you go more in length about lentivirus?
- David Huynh
That was an interesting entry. It would be wonderful that one day scientist would find a cure for HIV/AIDS. I had a professor that explained to me that likelihood of finding a cure was highly unlikely mainly because of how fast the AIDS virus evolves. He explained that even if they found a cure it might only work for a short time before the virus evolved into a higher form that is resistant to the drug. But i hope whatever the find in their research prevent anything like that from happening.
- Debbie Theodat
very interesting, could the newly found virus be dangerous for humans like HIV? i wonder how much work it would take to find a cure for HIV from this virus.
Hessom Minaei
Optional Inducible Lentiviral System | GenTarget Inc - Pre-made lentiviral expression particles (lentivirus) can be used for transient or stable gene expression in dividing and non-dividing cells without the use.
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