A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS
The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease:
The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.
"I was very surprised," said the doctor, Gero Hütter.
The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn't an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient's bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The mutation in question prevents a molecule called CCR5 from appearing on the surface of cells:
CCR5 acts as a kind of door for the virus. Since most HIV strains must bind to CCR5 to enter cells, the mutation bars the virus from entering. A new AIDS drug, Selzentry, made by Pfizer Inc., doesn't attack HIV itself but works by blocking CCR5.
About 1% of Europeans, and even more in northern Europe, inherit the CCR5 mutation from both parents. People of African, Asian and South American descent almost never carry it.
Scientists will certainly be following up on the accidental discovery, even though the Berlin case could simply be a fluke and there are many potential caveats even if it proves not to be a fluke:
If enough time passes, the extraordinarily protean HIV might evolve to overcome the mutant cells' invulnerability. Blocking CCR5 might have side effects: A study suggests that people with the mutation are more likely to die from West Nile virus. Most worrisome: The transplant treatment itself, given only to late-stage cancer patients, kills up to 30% of patients. While scientists are drawing up research protocols to try this approach on other leukemia and lymphoma patients, they know it will never be widely used to treat AIDS because of the mortality risk.
Real Change Could Emerge from Less Divisive Politics
Jessica Arons writes about the various abortion-related ballot initiatives around the country that were all rejected at the polls on Tuesday. Her point about creating real change through an end to the divisive politics of abortion is certainly worth taking to heart:
Imagine the real change society could accomplish if we stopped fighting over antiabortion ballot initiatives and instead spent our money, time, and energy helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies and supporting their decisions to continue or end unexpected pregnancies when they occur. Perhaps we would have the resources to provide women with adequate prenatal care and birthing options, healthy living and working conditions, accurate sex education and affordable contraception, protection from violence and sexual abuse, and unobstructed access to compassionate abortion care.
Evangelicals and the Obama Era
David Gushee, Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, looks at the role evangelical Christians will play in politics during the Obama administration. He wrote an article at the beginning of the year that predicted evangelicals would move toward this center during this election cycle and the exit poll numbers do indicate an incremental shift that amounts to an estimated 2 million new evangelical voters in the Democratic fold in 2008 as opposed to the 2004 presidential election. His vision for the agenda that evangelical Christians should work toward over the next four years is a much broader one that politically active Christian communities have fought for in the past:
The center and left of the white evangelical community are in a far better position to play a constructive role in affecting major policy decisions on the ethically significant issues that will be decided in the next four years.
Of course, we will not do so alone, but will work in partnership with the black and Hispanic evangelical communities, the center-left of the Catholic community, and a host of other interested parties who are ready to work with the Obama administration on a number of challenges our nation and world faces.
I am eager to see the Obama administration reverse Bush administration detainee policy as decisively as possible; sponsor necessary climate-change legislation and alternative energy measures; press for effective abortion-reduction strategies; spearhead comprehensive immigration reform; posture the United States as an adherent of international norms and practitioner of creative diplomacy; lead the world in the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons; ensure that every American has access to needed health care; and jump start our economy in a way that especially benefits those who most need help now.
Leslee Unruh says She Will Try for Another Ban in South Dakota
Leslee Unruh, leader of South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, the organization that put the abortion ban on the ballot in South Dakota this year says that she "wouldn't rule out another initiated measure as soon as 2010."
Leslee Unruh of Sioux Falls said the VoteYesForLife.com office will remain open, and anti-abortion forces will begin examining strategies for possible action to further restrict or ban abortion in the state Legislature or through a return to the South Dakota ballot.
"We're going to look at when exactly that will be, but we're going to be back," Unruh said.
