What Ever Happened to the Tre Enzyme?

[Daffodil]

hi all. in 2007, there was news about a hamburgh germany group who had created an enzyme (Tre) that excised the HIV virus from the genome in an infected cell.

it didn't really receive as much press coverage as one would think, i assume because of big pharma influence...?

i have been trying to find an update and sent out some emails but have gotten no info so far.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=designer-enzyme-cuts-hiv

 

[Daffodil]

http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/gkq523

 

[Daffodil]

i sent an email to dr. frank buchholz, asking about the Tre enzyme project. seems like a very nice man. he said this:

"Dear Sue,

thank you very much for your mail and interest in our research.

So far, Tre-recombinase has been tested in HIV-infected cell cultures in the laboratory. The next development steps include the analysis of Tre-recombinase in an infected organism (e.g. HIV-infected mouse animal systems) in order to analyze the efficacy and potential (undesired) side-effects. This will take about three years. Subsequently, Tre-recombinase will then be analyzed by doctors in clinical studies in non-infected and infected humans. This will take another couple of years. If everything goes well, it will take about 10 years from now of pre-clinical and clinical development before Tre-recombinase can reach the clinic.
Please also note, that the development process cannot proceed faster due understandable legal reasons. One has to be also aware that it may finally turn out that Tre-recombinase may eventually not be able to completely remove all viruses from a patient. Nevertheless, we will work hard to develop Tre-recombinase as a novel therapy strategy in HIV-inflicted diseases.

Best regards,


frank

 

[Daffodil]

i asked whether they were working on eradicating other, more simple retroviruses, such as HTLV and XMRV. dr. buchholz said:

Dear Sue,


We have thought about it but have not started any work on other retroviruses.


Best wishes,


frank

 

[Daffodil]

"Our work ........ was first published in summer 2007 in Science. ........... We have made significant progress in the mean time and isolated even better recombinases that we are currently testing. So stay tuned for an update....." - Frank

 

[Daffodil]

QUESTION: once XMRV treatment has been established, would anyone out there be interested in helping me raise money for projects (such as the one above) that might one day lead to a cure for XMRV?

thanks
sue

 

[Daffodil]

Dear Sue,


These experiments with "humanized" mice are running at the moment and first results look very promising.


Best regards,


frank

 

[mojoey]

Sign me up for your project daffodil

 

[alex3619]

Hi Daffodil,

If we get a treatment and we can work again, I suspect there will be millions of patients willing to pay a regular tithe toward an eventual cure. Who wouldn't want that?

Bye
Alex

 

[Daffodil]

hehe thanks guys. i wish these damn ARV's were working so we could get on with that project!