Today I learned something that made me smile. Not just smile. It made me hope. Today I learned something and that knowledge glows warmly, but dimly, like the light at the end of a really long tunnel.
Want to see something?
That's the AIDS virus. Looks kind of like balls of yarn, doesn't it? It's actually a fortress. The science guys can't seem to find a way into it. If they could get into it, they could change it, make it so it can't attack our bodies like it does.
But, it's a fortress. So, the virus still attacks. It attacks blood cells, causing your immune system to just sort of...quit. Like right now? My immune system is putting up one helluva fight. I have a cold. So all my little white blood cells and red blood cells are out there playing offense and defense, telling that nasty cold virus to get the fuck out, and never come back. And they're winning. Because they're really good at their jobs. But when the AIDS virus comes to play, well, it's almost like your blood cells, your offense and defense, just pick up their ball and go home. Okay, that was an oversimplification of something you probably already knew.
The best way to stop the virus from attacking is through a vaccine. A vaccine works like a movie trailer for your immune system – except it spoils the ending. It shows the immune system what a disease looks like, and gives up the tricks on how to fight it. That way, if the real virus actually shows up, your immune system is ready. It has the other team's playbook. Again, telling ya what you already knew.
Want to see something else?
That's another picture of the HIV virus. It's a special, new picture that the science guys just took. See, the green part is the HIV virus. The yellow part is the cell it's attaching itself to. Once attached, it's going to kill off that cell, then use it to replicate more of the virus. It can do this really, really fast, so that it's really, really hard for the rest of your body to fight back. Kind of like playing whack-a-mole.
Okay, so what's so special about the picture above? Well I'll tell you. That picture there showed the science guys a teeny-tiny nick in the fortress's defense. A sort of back door, that they didn't know was there. They think they have found a weakness in the fortress – a way inside.
This little nick in the armor could be invaluable. It could give the science guys a way inside the virus, which means that they could get antibodies inside the virus. If they could do that, well, then they'd have themselves a vaccine.
There are 40 million people globally living with HIV/AIDS.
Every year, 4 million more people are infected. Half a million of those people are right here in the United States.
And now, we might have found a way to build a better vaccine. I think that's one helluva Valentine. Thanks, science guys.
Read the article here.
A better explanation of the second photograph can be found here.
Photo credit and more technical information: NIAID
Crossposted from Blue House Diaries