By mtigges, Section News Posted on Fri May 14, 2004 at 02:48:05 AM PST
Three Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers have potentially created a novel HIV therapy. They have employed gene therapy to gut HIV of its harmful properties. By also inserting DNA that allows it to inhibit HIVs immune cell destroying properties, it allows an HIV positive person to live without developing AIDS. Moreover, the therapy is transmissable in the same ways as HIV is.
There are two sides to every coin though. The relative ease with which this has been done gives the researchers pause. "The genie is out of the bottle, so we might as well study these things in earnest." The downsides are two-fold. First, the same technique could be used to enhance how lethal a virus is. Second, since this does not cure infection, the two viruses through mutation could in the long run result in a more dangerous pathogen. In the HIV case, this new mutation would likely be just as transmissable as the original therapy.
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