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Daily Digest Archive for March 18, 2003
Q: (Initially posted on March 17, 2003) FROM
MENTEE KUNJAL IN NY
In biology class we were talking about AIDS and HIV and how
they use special processes to keep the virus from mutating.
For example they would have and HIV patient use a certain drug
for 3 months then not have them take anything for 2 months,
this would cause the virus to reproduce but not mutate and become
"immune" to the medicine. I was wondering, if they
took blood cells and enhanced them with things like nutrients
and/or medicines that could possibly kill or prevent the virus
from spreading, would it work? Where would i get information
about it?
Also I am really interested in these kinds of things and would
like to know if there were any programs (in/near NY and for
high schoolers, esp. freshmen) where one could get a hands on
experience and work with cells and viruses and things of such
nature. |
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March 18, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR DIANA DIONISIO
IN CA
I'm only a first year bio major, but I'm going to give this
question a shot and summarize something we've gone over in
class without all the details. There has to be some science
journal that puts out new research findings that you can look
at. One way human cells fight viral infection is through restriction
enzymes that can digest or cut up the viral DNA once it gets
into the cell. A certain enzyme can destroy the cell but maybe
the HIV has a special protection against it. So once they
find restriction enzyme that will digest HIV or find a way
to take away the HIV's protection, that might be one way to
stop it.
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