Comments on: Scientists Design Assassin Immune Cells to Kill HIV-Infected Cells

By: motoko

motoko — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:35:25 +0000

we need to act quickly…
This is a serious diseases that cannot be ignored because anyone can have it.. whether who you are rich or poor, boy or girl, sexual active or not.
Someone is dying in this diseases. Everyone can contribute to find the cure.. Am a victim also of this disease.
Hoping that one day this diseases will be cured.

By: Theo J

Theo J — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:35:04 +0000

As long as they carry Nun-chucks and wear bandannas over their faces i’ll be happy

By: g

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:08:25 +0000

There are millions of people suffering from HIV, it is time to find the cure, people are tired of waiting and meds that stop the virus but damage different organs ! When enough is enough

By: assasin

assasin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:25:51 +0000

One thing is certain, this has all to do with design science and little to do with chance and luck “Darwinian Evolution”. This is engineering 101 and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:42:22 +0000

“One is that the assassin T-cells may be too specific and not recognize variants of SL9 that exist in different human races. Another is that they may not be specific enough and could attack other proteins, including human proteins.”

Didn’t Livescience just say last week that race didn’t exist. Haha

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:43:52 +0000

To Carter Kindley

You are right, ‘Discover’ is a science based publication and in being so they are perfectly correct in using the word ‘race’. As scientists we celebrate diversity and genetic differences because without it our species would be doomed to extinction through inbreeding depression. One of the reasons humans have been able to evolve to the point where we are able to engineer these assassin cells that are able to target what we want them to is this great genetic diversity. The term ‘race’ should no longer be seen as a term of segregation, that should be left in the past. It should be used as a way of celebrating our diversity and absolutely amazing good fortune that humans have managed to survive this long. If HIV had mutated from SIV during the Middle Ages for example, our species would not have stood a chance.

By: F26BP

F26BP — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:47:45 +0000

Re: Carter Kindley

In human society, “race” is a political construct. However, using this construct, one can recognize trends in genetic variation in protein expression. It’s pretty obvious to me, at least, that this post is referring to “human races” as the categories that we use in society, not the scientific definition that you’ve advanced.

As Dr. Ade Fakoya, from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance states in the BBC article cited in the post: “The genetic make up of these receptors do vary with different racial populations.” Sure, there’s an argument as to why race is not the best paradigm for describing genetic variation. However, racial differences in HIV susceptibility have been characterized. Further, because racial construction resulted in differential treatment of races, etc., it’s not an anachronism for the discussion of health care delivery.

By: Carter Kindley

Carter Kindley — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:18:44 +0000

Very exciting news for HIV research. My only issue (and a huge issue it is; I am rather outraged) is the use of the word ‘races’ near the end of the article. Come on, Discover, you so-called scientific publication. And, Nina Bai, you should be chastised for unscientific and offensive writing. A race is defined as a biological subspecies of a species. And, as we know, there exists not enough genetic difference between any two human beings to define any subspecies of Homo sapiens.

Come on, Discover. You can (and ought to) do better.

By: assassin

assassin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:02:21 +0000

Whats needed now is a control mechanism.

By: assassin

assassin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:01:03 +0000

“could scientists create another asassin cell to kill off AIDs? could the assassin cell used to kill off HIV also be used to kill AIDs?”

If HIV is the direct cause of AID’s, then expect that eliminating the direct cause eliminates anything that it causes. The body has repair mechanisms to revert back to optimal condition if there wasn’t that much damage done(I think) . I think the assassin cells could be made to continue (not do anything) if it reaches the human proteins and target HIV.

By: Grace

Grace — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:48:32 +0000

that is so cool! assassin cells that could kill off HIV viruses would really help and change the world. could there be a way that scientists could “train” the assassin cells to ignore human proiens? just a thought. here’s another project. could scientists create another asassin cell to kill off AIDs? could the assassin cell used to kill off HIV also be used to kill AIDs?