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A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV
A "Morning Before" Pill to Prevent HIV Infection

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CodenameV
04/27/09

In reply to A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV
I used to be in genetics: they should use a plasmid targeted specifically for this DNA region; simply using a compound known to make the DNA knockout that will in turn undo the knockout that de-activated the RNA transcription of the intron, is like dumping a vat of EDTH into a living cell to kill one bacterium.

For those of you that didn't understand that, I'll use Egon's "Twinkie analogy": your typical DNA strand, lets say, is represented by a Twinkie. Now, a bug is on part of the Twinkie, so what I'd normally do is cut off the part of the twinkie that has the bug on it, carefully using a knife.

This is using a shotgun to tank out the bug on the twinkie.

Tell them about the Twinkie.
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Jojitsu
04/27/09

@CodenameV: It would be great to use plasmids except for the fact that they don't work in humans... much harder to do gene therapy in us large mammals. From my brief glace at it they've only got proof of concept in certain cell types for us, so there's a whole slew of problems that open up if these retrocyclins have any ill effects on other signaling pathways in different systems.

The article is wonderful for what it is, but we are far far away from human application until people become less afraid of gene therapy again.
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CodenameV
04/28/09

@Jojitsu: To make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once its been established. Because by the second day of incubation, any cells that have undergone reversion mutations give rise to revertant colonies like rats leaving a sinking ship; then the ship sinks. You could try EMS recombination, Ethyl methane sulfonate, but it is an alkylating agent and a potent mutagen. It would create a virus so lethal the subject would die before he left the table. A repressor protein that blocks the operating cells, wouldn't obstruct replication, but it does give rise to an error in replication so that the newly formed DNA strand carries a mutation and you've got a virus again.

But this...all of this is academic.
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FredicvsMaximvs
04/28/09

@CodenameV: The light that burns twice as bright lasts half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.
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Jojitsu
04/28/09

@CodenameV: EMS recombination does not exist. That was in the movie Bladerunner.

And I agree, no one would use EMS to induce mutations in the hope it would turn on an inert gene. Who said anything about doing EMS? And since I assume you are talking about people here as you refer to "the subject", EMS does not create a virus (proteins themselves are not viruses), it is a mutagen, and will lead to either cell death or cancer because of it, it's more akin to Xray irridation.

But if you really are into this stuff, pubmed actually has a whole bunch of genetics books for free you can read into if you want to learn more, it's really neat stuff!
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FredicvsMaximvs
04/28/09

@Jojitsu: And had you been paying attention, you'd have realized the entire comment is a direct quote from Bladerunner.
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ElimGarak
04/27/09

In reply to A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV
Oh no! And then what happens when Mr. Barclay turns into a giant spider? The fools! When will they learn????

Seriously though - this is very cool news, if we don't all turn into spiders.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/27/09

@ElimGarak: I fail to see how being turned into a giant spiderhuman is a bad thing.
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Grey_Area
04/27/09

@crashedpc: Oh sure, it's all fun and games until you start doing dance numbers like that Parker kid.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/27/09

In reply to A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV
Shit, I can only imagine the new kinds of email spam in the future...

"TERN ON YUOR JUNK DNA AND WACH YOUR JUNK GROW 3112 PLEASE YOUR GIRL"
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Annalee Newitz
04/27/09

@crashedpc: I already get those spams. That's why I had to tune my spam filter to the FUTURE man.
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corpore-metal
04/27/09

@Annalee Newitz: You know, that's actually a clever idea--a bayasian filter that trains on spam you receive a few years in the future!

It would be very hard to outwit, unless the spammers are time travelers too.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/27/09

@corpore-metal: They have to be... they've already mastered the ability to be in millions of places at once!
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ZetaCrossfire
04/27/09

In reply to A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV
but is there a catch? What is if we do turn them back on will i grow a 3rd arm? I would not complain i think that would be badass but still.
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KhaiJB
04/27/09

@ZetaCrossfire: I could use a third arm.... putting shelves for example would be so much easier...
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Annalee Newitz
04/27/09

@ZetaCrossfire: What if we grow an extra torso? Or gills? Honestly, I'm in favor of all kinds of mutation as long as it's consensual. But I don't think you can mess with somebody's developmental genes and get their permission at the same time. Since, um, they'll be developing in a womb at the moment you introduce those mutations.
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Purple Dave
04/28/09

@ZetaCrossfire:
Doesn't work that way. Any instances of extra limbs can usually be traced to some sort of chemically-induced mutation (like that whole "children of thalidamide" thing). Turning on unused DNA just shows up in other weird ways. For instance, people of African descent are known to be at high risk for sickle-cell anemia, but what is less commonly known is that the gene that increases that risk has a somewhat beneficial effect. It also makes the individual more resistant to malaria.
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eXo
04/28/09

@Purple Dave: Not resistant enough to malaria apparently.
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Purple Dave
04/28/09

@exo:
Resistent =/= immune. Just not "Hey, a mosquito just bit me...*thud*".
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