Health Milestone: Cure for AIDS Discovered!!

AIDS patient

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been the hardest thing to treat because it inserts it’s genome into the hosts DNA making it difficult to eradicate using conventional treatment approaches. For a long time, antiretroval therapy has been widely used to stop the virus from replicating in the body and thus prolonging the patient’s life.

However, this is set to change. The world is much closer to treating HIV/AIDS. Scientists from Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia made a breakthrough that will potentially save millions of lives across the globe. In article posted in Medical News Today, the scientist managed to delete the HIV virus genome from the Human DNA using a DNA snipping enzyme. The approach was based on bacterial defense mechanism that protects against viral infection.

The enzyme, referred to as gRNA will be able to find HIV-1 viral genome on human DNA and delete them.  The scientist successfully stranded and tested gRNA’s 20 nucleotides. The preparation was then tested on cultured human cells infected with HIV-1 and, guess what? The virus was gone.

The discovery will go through a few more tests before it is cleared for clinical use. The next step is to find a way of ensuring that the enzyme is delivered to all human cells that get infected with HIV virus.

Permanent cure for HIV/AIDS is now within reach. 

By: Sheriff Mako On Friday, January 16, 2015

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Rather than Affect Your Health, the Chlorovirus ATCV-1 Makes you Stupid

Green Algae. Image Credit: Financetwitter.com

Health -- Late last year, scientists discovered that a virus that all along has been known to attack green algae in rivers and lakes can also infect the human brain and make one stupid.  The Virus, Cholovirus ATCV-1 belonging to the Phycodnavirdae family was previously not known to infect humans or listed among viruses that can affect humans.

According to findings of the study published in November 2013, scientists were surprised to recover the virus from samples extracted from the human gut. The virus was accidently recovered from a throat swab during the study, which included measuring the cognitive ability of participants.

Researchers in the U.S say that the virus can impair learning and memory, cognitive activity, thereby making any infected person to be less intelligent. Robert Yolken, a virologist at the John Hopkins Medical School in Maryland, who participated in the study said that “This is a striking example showing that the ‘innocuous’ microorganisms we carry can affect behavior and cognition.” The virus is thought to inhabit the throat of infected individuals. 

Participants who were found infected with the virus scored up to 10% lower in cognitive tests compared to those not infected. The presence of the virus was also associated with lower attention and “significant decrease in visual processing and visual motor speed.” The virus is found in fresh water and can easily be taken up by swimmers.

Further tests conducted by inserting infected algae into the mouth of mice confirmed the cognitive effects of the virus. Infected mice took 10% longer time to make their way out of mazes and also took 20% longer time exploring new objects, compared to uninfected mice. 

 Now human beings need to worry not only about physical health risks associated with viral infection, but mental effects as well. 

By: Sheriff Mako On Sunday, January 04, 2015

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