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Science Friday

HIV Remission, Bones, Jumping Spiders. March 8, 2019, Part 2

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Life Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Friday, Natural Sciences

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nearly twelve years ago, a cancer patient infected with HIV received two bone marrow transplants to wipe out his leukemia. Now, researchers in the United Kingdom reported in Nature earlier this week that their patient, a man known only as “the London patient,” had been in remission and off anti-retroviral therapy for 18 months after undergoing a similar bone marrow transplant, with the same gene mutation involved, to treat leukemia. While the team is hesitant to call their patient cured, he is the first adult in twelve years to remain in remission for more than a year after stopping medication. But what do these two patients’ recoveries, requiring risky and painful transplants, mean for the millions of others with HIV around the world? Two HIV researchers not involved in this research, Katharine Bar of the University of Pennsylvania and Paula Cannon of the University of Southern California, tell us about the latest treatments that could someday be more broadly accessible, including gene therapies and immunotherapy, and what hurdles clinical studies still face. Plus: Over 500 million years of evolution has resulted in the same bony framework underlying all mammal species today. But why is the leg bone connected to the ankle bone, as the song goes? And what can the skeletons of our ancestors tell us about how humans became the walking, talking bag o’ bones we are today? Science writer Brian Switek, author of the new book Skeleton Keys, joins Ira to explain why our skeletons evolved to look the way they do. And jumping spiders are crafty hunters, but sometimes they need their own disguise to avoid their own predators. The Crematogaster jumping spider, for example, avoids detection by mimicking ants, and go as far as losing their ability to jump to look more ant-like. Sometimes, predators can be your own mates—male jumping spiders becoming a female’s meal if their courtship displays don’t impress. Biologist Alexis Dodson and  Entomologist Lisa Taylor talk about what jumping spiders can tell us about tell us about the evolution of coloration and communication in the natural world.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. Later in the hour, unlocking the mysteries of our skeletons.

0:06.5

But first, hopeful news this week for people living with HIV. A couple of drug trials have shown that a monthly,

0:13.7

long-acting injection is as effective as daily dosing of pills in keeping HIV in check. This news comes just days after researchers reported

0:24.3

that a second man has been cured of infection from HIV, a man known only as the London patient.

0:31.6

This comes 12 years after the cure of the world's first person. Now, why? Why a cure for these two? Well, both men, in addition to

0:40.4

HIV, had cancer requiring bone marrow transplants, and both received transplants of cells

0:47.2

with one very particular genetic twist, HIV resistance. If the London patient remains off drugs and HIV-free, as he has for 18 months,

0:57.9

then that would make two people in the whole world who have been cured of the virus,

1:01.6

and only after risky procedures meant to save them from advanced cancer.

1:06.6

So, what does research hold for the other 37 million people hoping to live the best lives they can with a virus that was once a death sentence?

1:16.8

Here to talk about the future of HIV research, our two HIV researchers, working on different kinds of treatments.

1:23.2

Dr. Paula Cannon is Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

1:32.5

Welcome, Dr. Cannon.

1:34.0

Hello, Aara. Hi.

1:35.5

Nice to have you.

1:36.6

Dr. Catherine Barr, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Disease Division, University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

1:43.4

Welcome, Dr. Barr.

1:46.4

Hello, nice to be here.

1:52.2

You're welcome. Thanks for joining us. Dr. Cannon, as I just said, this patient's cure required that you have a bone marrow transplant from a donor who happened to have this rare

1:57.1

genetic mutation that makes people resistant to HIV infection.

2:04.8

He is, as I say, now the second person to ever achieve remission for more than a year.

2:10.0

There may be another patient in Dusseldorf, right, on the way to the same thing.

...

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