[Mother Abigail]

The data in today's Lancet really just makes public the data discussed by ViroLogic over a month ago.  There is more detail in the Lancet paper and some sequence data represented in a phylogenetic tree, but the paper in Lancet simply restates last months information.

3-DCR NYC is unique and it has a wild type replication capacity yet is resistant to the three major classes of anti-HIV drugs.  These properties were determined in in vitro assays and are not host dependent.

Issues relating to host factors affecting progression as well as transmissibility of the virus remain open. 

However, the combination of the dual receptor usage, normal replication capacity, and drug resistance in one virus is new, and raises the possibility that this is a novel and deadly recombinant formed via dual infection

[Bon mots]

However, the combination of the dual receptor usage, normal replication capacity, and drug resistance in one virus is new, and raises the possibility that this is a novel and deadly recombinant formed via dual infection

So what happens if one of these guys gets a triple infection?

This was probably just waiting to happen, because people who are already infected with HIV probably don't worry about catching it afterwards, and if they meet someone else who has HIV probably decide, "oh well, we're both infected, so why worry?"

Now it looks like we are finding out what happens when the AIDS virus mutates into different viruses, and someone gets two or more of them.

[dmartin]

It is my understanding that HIV by itself will not cause AIDS but that the addition of infection or weakened immune system response due to drug use will.

An associate of mine who is involved in this type of research states that you could inject yourself with HIV and not develop AIDS. It is when you begin getting sexually transmitted diseases and weakening your immune system by using hard drugs that your system breaks.

Thoughts?

[null and void]

Thanks for the ping. tic tic tic...