• Question: Do you think all diseases have the potential to be cured?

    Asked by unknown to Matt, Sally on 11 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by AndrewH.
    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Hi, difficult to give an absolute answer to this. Most diseases (here I mean infectious diseases) are a result of interaction between the host and pathogen whereby the host suffers at the expense of the pathogen. This can be a result of direct damage or indirectly through over-stimulation of the immune response to infection. There are many mechanisms involved and if we can understand these, then we have a better chance of shifting the balance back in the favour of the host (us). The challenge is how best to do this without disturbing the rest of our normal flora. I feel that with sufficient understanding there is the potential for cure if the damage is reversible. Sometimes cure may not return you entirely back to how you were prior to infection.

    • Photo: Matt Bilton

      Matt Bilton answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      I think HIV is a good example of a disease which is near impossible to cure – the virus infects certain white blood cells of its victims, and sneaks its DNA actually into the DNA of the white blood cell. Once there the virus DNA can either be used to make more copies of itself – causing lots of new viruses to be released – or the DNA can hide away in infected cells, causing a reservoir of viruses.

      The drugs we have for HIV can stop the non-hiding viruses from replicating themselves pretty well, and so good treatments now exist. But these treatments can’t do anything about the hiding HIV. Once the virus is in, it’s in.

      Without finding a way to catch every single last cell with hiding virus DNA, it will be difficult to cure HIV, even if it is possible to treat by stopping the virus from replicating once it wakes up. However, just because it seems a nearly impossible task, doesn’t mean there aren’t people working on it! Some scientists, for example, are trying to actually wake up hiding HIV viruses so that infected cells can give themselves away, and then be destroyed by the immune system.

      I think that whatever challenges scientists face in dealing with a problem, there is always the potential for a solution to be found – even if it’s a case of trying a hundred thousand ideas before getting to the one that works and results in the cure.

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