This actually gets me thinking… Is anyone actually working on an aids vaccine? Maybe mRNA could do something there, theoretically it should be able to grant pretty much any type of immunity you can have naturally
Yes, they are working diligently to ID an effective mRNA vaccine, but the same barriers exist as before. First, HIV mutates rapidly, meaning it easily escapes immunity and evades vaccines. Second, as a retrovirus, it integrates its DNA into a person’s own cellular DNA, so even if your immune system destroys the virus, the DNA remains undetectable to the immune system and able to manufacture new virus at will.
(Responding to the picture here) As for cancer, it’s not a virus or bacteria, which is what vaccines have typically worked against. Cancer is your immune system failing to kill a cell from your own body that has mutated to grow out of control. They’re rapidly developing mRNA techniques for cancer, too.
COVID was a fucking walk in the park immunologically compared to cancer and HIV
Yeah, retroviruses are a hard nut to crack. Either you try to target the virus and leave the cells alone, which is the hard route, or you target the specific DNA sequence of the virus, which forces the body to start murdering itself.
PreP is a really effective tool for now while research continues. Your chances of getting HIV while taking the medication correctly reduces your chances to a very very small percentage. Of course, nothing is perfect, but it’s been great for the gay amab community.
This actually gets me thinking… Is anyone actually working on an aids vaccine? Maybe mRNA could do something there, theoretically it should be able to grant pretty much any type of immunity you can have naturally
Yes, they are working diligently to ID an effective mRNA vaccine, but the same barriers exist as before. First, HIV mutates rapidly, meaning it easily escapes immunity and evades vaccines. Second, as a retrovirus, it integrates its DNA into a person’s own cellular DNA, so even if your immune system destroys the virus, the DNA remains undetectable to the immune system and able to manufacture new virus at will.
(Responding to the picture here) As for cancer, it’s not a virus or bacteria, which is what vaccines have typically worked against. Cancer is your immune system failing to kill a cell from your own body that has mutated to grow out of control. They’re rapidly developing mRNA techniques for cancer, too.
COVID was a fucking walk in the park immunologically compared to cancer and HIV
Yeah, retroviruses are a hard nut to crack. Either you try to target the virus and leave the cells alone, which is the hard route, or you target the specific DNA sequence of the virus, which forces the body to start murdering itself.
I wish we could add friends on lemmy cause I like the cut of your jib
There have been recent breakthroughs in that area along this exact line of thought, actually.
PreP is a really effective tool for now while research continues. Your chances of getting HIV while taking the medication correctly reduces your chances to a very very small percentage. Of course, nothing is perfect, but it’s been great for the gay amab community.
They are, but every time they get close to a cure god sends a hurricane to destroy the lab and kill all the atheists inside it
Stop building the labs on the Gulf of Mexico?