The course of HIV is driven by the virus' infection of immune system cells. But the virus also infects other cell types, including two kinds of kidney cells. The viruses' infection of kidney cells leads to fibrosis and, ultimately, kidney failure.
Reading last weekend’s Wall Street Journal review of “The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It” I was struck by an anecdote. It’s about an interview the reviewer did with a scientist who works in the field of neuroprostheses, and that scientist’s refusal to talk about the possible practical applications of his work, because, he said, “false hope is a sinful thing.” Really? To me, it seems like an inevitable part of hope is that it might be false. To illustrate, I don’t hope that my neighbors will be nice to me, because it’s a sure thing....
By combining kidney transplants with a transplant of bone marrow stem cells and so-called facilitating cells, researchers have enabled patients to ditch their immunosuppressive drugs after receiving an HLA-mismatched transplant in a Phase II trial.
Smoldering multiple myeloma is something of a quandary for doctors. Individuals with the condition have an overall risk of 10 percent per year of progressing to outright myeloma, which is a cancer of the plasma cells.
A team of researchers has shown that transgenic mice with increased levels of the tumor suppressor PTEN have a longer life span than their wild-type brethren.
The statistics on stroke are enough to make the most hard-boiled drug developer cry. "Over a thousand treatments that have been developed in cells and in rodents have failed," Michael Tymianski told BioWorld Today.
Vaccines are now given as an intramuscular jab. And that delivery, Thomas Kupper told BioWorld Today, "totally bypasses the rich immunological environment of the skin.".
