October 15, 2008Marin Science Seminar
Is HIV Infection Impossible to Cure?
with Nejat Duzgunes, Ph.D.
"We will describe how HIV infects its host cells and the molecular targets of current anti-HIV drugs. We will discuss why it has not been possible to cure HIV infection or to develop a vaccine against it, and how one might cure AIDS. We will also discuss briefly the challenges of doing scientific research in the United States, and how one might overcome these difficulties."
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3 comments:
Okay. 5 sentences.
It was interesting to see the way an HIV virus enters a cell. It was so different from other viruses that it enters a cell's chromosome and changes it and acts as a host. I think a possible method to cure this disease is to give a vaccine that will 'trick' it to think that it is killing its own kind. I believe that there is a cure for this method. However, we just haven't discovered it yet. We probably just need better technology.
This was a great one.
It did depress me a little bit to learn that at this point, there is no definite "cure" for HIV, but it was interesting to see the several inhibitors that can treat it to certain degrees. I am still curious about what biological factors contribute to individuals being more or less likely to be affected by the HIV virus. It was mentioned that a certain people in Europe do not respond negatively to the virus. I think that further research in this fact may lead to other conclusions made on the differentiation between the biology of the two races - and ultimately, advancements in the search for a cure.
I found this presentation very interesting because I had no idea about how HIV works or about how medicine to combat HIV/AIDS works. It is so frustrating that conventional medications such as vaccines and simple drugs cannot combat HIV because of mutation and quick spreading.I also did not realize that HIV alters a cell's genome. Although the ideas of tiny instruments that could destroy HIV infected cells are amazing, I feel that they are highly unrealistic. I believe that there is a cure for HIV/AIDS however but I have no idea about what this cure could be.
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