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medpundit |
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Tuesday, November 30, 2004But the vaccine does has some practical problems. It doesn't prevent disease, it only suppresses it, much as the current drugs do. The advantage is that it would be a once a year shot instead of a daily regimen of several pills. But, making it is cumbersome, and likely very costly: To make a dose of vaccine, the French doctors extract from each HIV-infected patient a sample of dendritic cells -- starfish-shaped white blood cells that play a special role in the human immune system. They also take a sample of the virus from the infected blood of each patient. In the laboratory, they separately grow uninfected dendritic cells and a batch of the virus itself. The virus is eventually killed and mixed in with the dendritic cells, whose special function then becomes vital. The dendritic cells consume the virus, breaking it into pieces and displaying the parts on their surfaces like grisly trophies. Doctors then inject the dendritic cells back into each patient. If it pans out, but turns out to be very expensive, would it be worth replacing the current anti-viral drug regimens that have also been very successful? posted by Sydney on 11/30/2004 08:00:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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