Doctors hope for cure in a second baby born with HIV (Update) - 0 views
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A second American baby born with the AIDS virus may have had her infection put into remission and possibly cured by very early treatment—in this instance, four hours after birth.
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In another AIDS-related development, scientists have modified genes in the blood cells of a dozen adults to help them resist HIV.
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A host of sophisticated tests at multiple times suggest the LA baby has completely cleared the virus
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The baby's signs are different from what doctors see in patients whose infections are merely suppressed by successful treatment,
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Most HIV-infected moms in the U.S. get AIDS medicines during pregnancy, which greatly cuts the chances they will pass the virus to their babies
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Four weeks later, half of the patients were temporarily taken off AIDS medicines to see the gene therapy's effect
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started the baby on them a few hours after birth. Tests later confirmed she had been infected, but does not appear to be now, nearly a year later
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study in adults was prompted by an AIDS patient who appears cured after getting a cell transplant seven years ago
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HIV usually infects blood cells through a protein on their surface called CCR5. A California company, Sangamo BioSciences Inc., makes a treatment that can knock out a gene that makes CCR5.
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tested it in 12 HIV patients who had their blood filtered to remove some of their cells. The treated cells were infused back into the patients
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Ten months later when she returned, they could find no sign of infection even though the mom had stopped giving her AIDS medicines.
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a federally funded study just getting underway to see if very early treatment can cure HIV infection
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About 60 babies in the U.S. and other countries will get very aggressive treatment that will be discontinued if tests over a long time, possibly two years, suggest no active infection.
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The virus returned in all but one of them; that patient turned out to have one copy of the protective gene
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the hope is that the modified cells eventually will outnumber the rest and give the patient a way to control viral levels without medicines