http://gizmodo.com/5713498/man-officially-cured-of-hiv?skyline=true&s=i

More reason for us to support stem cell research

ha ha .. fat chance of that happening in America

I support it, but it always makes me laugh and think about this episode.

<br><br>

<div style="background-color:#000000;width:368px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src=http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:153890 width="360" height="293" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b><a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s07e02-krazy-kripples">Krazy Kripples</a></b><br/>Tags: <a style="display: block; position: relative; top: -1.33em; float: right; font-weight: bold; color: #ffcc00; text-decoration: none" href=" href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/episodes/s07e02-krazy-kripples">more...</a></p></div></div>

Although I support stem cells all the way, 100%, I still think I should tone down the sensationalism of the article.

"A certain percentage of the human race has innate immunity to HIV (~1%) through a mutation which prevents a molecule called CCR5 from appearing on the surface of your cells. In most people, this molecule signals HIV to bind and enter cells - hence, if you lack CCR5, then HIV can't see you and won't affect you. There are several new anti-HIV drugs that target CCR5, (called CCR5 antagonists), which attempt to disrupt this interaction.

If you happen to be a leukemia patient with HIV (as was the case here) and you receive a bone marrow transplant from someone who has this innate immunity, chances are you will be effectively cured of your HIV infection because you are replacing your own immune system with that of the donor. A bone marrow transplant is HIGHLY invasive, and often does not work. The recipient is first blasted with very powerful chemotherapy to literally kill that person's bone marrow. During this stage the person is incredibly vulnerable to secondary infection because they have no adaptive immune response. Then, the recipient is injected with donor bone marrow stem cells, which in theory, will recolonize the bone tissue and eventually take over the immune response. In the case of this one patient, it appears that this is what happened. Consequently, this is NOT a practical cure for HIV - though it is a very interesting proof of concept."

Regardless, ******* awesome.

it's very cool, and i think in some years in the future it could be made usefull regardless of what that doctor thinks.

i'm not trying to start a debate on stem cells, my reason for opposing them isn't religious or anything of the sort, cloning just scares the hell out of me. it's being done, nobody can stop it, and if you think the u.s. government isn't *** deep in it already, pull your head out of the sand.