David Baltimore (Cal Tech) Part 2: Why Gene Therapy Might be a Reasonable Tool for Attacking HIV

In part 2, I describe the growing health problem that is facing the world with the spread of HIV and the limitations of current drug therapies and vaccine strategies. We need new ideas for tackling this problem. Here and in the next segment, I describe bold strategies of using gene therapy to conquer HIV, The approach that I describe in this segment involves gene therapy to produce short hairpin RNAs (siRNA) that target the destruction of a critical co-receptor of HIV, which the viruses that needs to infect cells. I discuss initial proof-of-principle experiments that suggest this approach might be feasible and the next steps needed to develop this idea into a real therapy. See more at http://www.ibioseminars.org

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• biology
• HIV
• AIDS
• human immunodeficiency virus
• virus
• retrovirus
• gene therapy
• siRNA
• shRNA
• RNAi
• CCR5

[neurocrater]

superb. thank you for this fascinating treasure trove of information and insight.

[godnothing666]

I really hope I see this type of approach and technology blossom and flourish in my lifetime.

[godnothing666]

Fascinating I was contemplating my basic understanding of human biological disorders such as cancer and thought if only there was a way to reprogram the defective cells with their original codes you could treat everything from cancer to old age and then I thought if you could hijack a virus body and put your flawless dna in it problem solved. Which got me to researching and come to realize I'm not the genius I thought I was you guys have already thought of it.