HIV Vaccine Advances to Stage Two Human Clinical Trials

Scientists were shocked to discover the cure for HIV was simply an overwhelming dose of microscopic AIDS ribbons. OK, not really. Still, great news!

The various HIV “cures” and vaccines in development continue to speed ahead, with one pharmaceutical company’s product advancing into stage 2 human clinical trials.

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today the initiation of two new Phase 2 clinical studies (SB-728-1101 and SB-728-902, Cohort 5) in its program to develop a “functional cure” for HIV/AIDS. Sangamo’s ZFP Therapeutic^® approach (SB-728-T) generates T-cells that are resistant to HIV infection using its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology to permanently disrupt the DNA sequence encoding CCR5, a co-receptor used by HIV to enter cells. The company expects to present data from its SB-728-T HIV clinical trials at appropriate medical meetings in 2012.

“We are delighted to be able to open these two important clinical studies ahead of schedule,” said Geoff Nichol, M.B. Ch.B., Sangamo’s executive vice president, research and development. “Data from earlier Phase 1 trials demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between the number of circulating T-cells in which both CCR5 genes are modified and the reduction in HIV viral load in infected subjects during an interruption of anti-retroviral therapy. Both of these new Phase 2 clinical trials are specifically designed to confirm and further investigate these findings.”

The new studies employ two approaches to increase the number of engrafted T-cells in which both CCR5 gene copies are modified (biallelically modified) in SB-728-T-treated, HIV-infected subjects. The first, an extension of an ongoing trial (SB-728-902, Cohort 5), is designed to further investigate the effect of SB-728-T treatment on HIV viral load in subjects that are naturally heterozygous for the CCR5 delta-32 gene mutation (i.e. one of their two CCR5 gene copies has the mutation and one is normal).

 The second study (SB-728-1101), in HIV-infected subjects without the CCR5 delta-32 mutation, employs a conditioning pretreatment designed to significantly enhance the number of engrafted biallelically modified T-cells.

The Sangamo vaccine is one of several products racing neck and neck toward mass market approval and release. It’s safe to say that if the first “cure” to hit the market is produced by the American pharmaceutical industry, it will be a costly product that creates enormous corporate wealth.

"Functional HIV Cure" Trial Advances

Via press release:

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today the initiation of two new Phase 2 clinical studies (SB-728-1101 and SB-728-902, Cohort 5) in its program to develop a "functional cure" for HIV/AIDS. Sangamo's ZFP Therapeutic® approach (SB-728-T) generates T-cells that are resistant to HIV infection using its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology to permanently disrupt the DNA sequence encoding CCR5, a co-receptor used by HIV to enter cells. The company expects to present data from its SB-728-T HIV clinical trials at appropriate medical meetings in 2012.

Most interesting: "In addition to safety, the study will evaluate the effect of escalating doses of Cytoxan on SB-728-T engraftment, the effect of SB-728-T treatment on viral load following HAART interruption." In other words (I think), they'll be looking at whether patients can cease taking meds after the treatment.

Half Of Gay Men Would Give Up One Year Of Life For The Perfect Body

According to a British survey, almost half of gay men say they would sacrifice one year of their life in return for having the perfect body.

The research also said 10% of gay men would agree to die more than 11 years earlier if they could have their ideal body now. Nine in ten gay men admit they enforce “unrealistic” images of lean and muscular men in conversation. In comparison, only a third of straight men said they would give a year or more for an ideal body shape, and 77% admitted buying into the body image ideal. The research was part of a study commissioned by Central YMCA, the Succeed Foundation and the Centre for Appearance Research at UWE Bristol into how men talk about their bodies.

All I have to say is well duh, who wouldn;t give up ayear of your life to look like an underwear model, I would in a New York City second, who's with me on that one?  Can I get a hallejauh-er!

STUDY: FBI Hate-Crime Report Has Bad News For Gay Men

Federal Bureau of Investigation just released its Hate Crime Statistics report for 2010. And while the figures haven’t changed so much from last year’s, they’re still troubling.

Local law enforcement agencies reported 8,208 hate-crime victims. A majority of the victims fell prey to racist violence (47.3 percent). Of the 3,949 victims of racially-motivated attacks, 70 percent were attacked for being black and 17.7 for being white. Of the 6,008 known offenders in all hate crimes, 58.6 percent were white and 18.4 were black.

It’s interesting to note that religion and sexual orientation got targeted for attacks at similar rates (20 to 19.3 percent or 1,552 to 1,528 victims respectively). But before you go believing NOM’s line that Christians and “marriage defenders” are being targeted for their faith, keep in mind that Jewish and Islamic faiths faced the brunt with of violence (accounting for 67 to 12.7 percent of the the 1,552 anti-religious attacks) while Christians ranked just over seven percent.

Furthermore, of the 1,528 attacks motivated by sexual orientation, gay men got targeted 57.3 percent of the time and lesbians got targeted 11.8 percent of the time—presumably including bisexuals. Sadly, the report does not include anti-trans crime yet, but thanks to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009, local authorities have begun tracking such data