| "...we think that CD4 molecules might be embedded in a matrix and made use of outside the body in a alternate treatment for AIDS." |
| The fact that organizational constraint is found everywhere doesn�t imply that it always produces results that are beautiful to behold. In this instance, my friends at IU didn't seem to have been acting in an entirely responsible way. I don�t know what the American Cancer Society�s (ACS) position on any connection between cervical cancer and the use of birth control pills might have been in 1992. But the ACS did acknowledge such a connection by 2007. The ASC page on the subject may be viewed by clicking this line. So my experience has been that sometimes I can be right, and those with more narrowly focused scientific specialties can be wrong. That doesn�t happen all the time, of course. I wouldn�t be crushed to learn that I�m mistaken about HIV, meiosis, and anal intercourse. I�m willing to be convinced that I�m wrong--but so far my friends in the AIDS research community haven�t convinced me. An ocean liner is to a lifeboat as a spermatozoon is to a virus. Not only is the ocean liner basically just a larger, more sophisticated version of the lifeboat, but the larger ocean liner carries copies of those smaller lifeboats as part of its cargo. Similarly, a sperm cell is a larger, more sophisticated version of a virus. A virus and a sperm cell perform essentially similar functions. And the sperm cell carries the smaller viruses as part of its own cargo. [ 10 ] Commercial possibilities We'd like to end on a up note. Our last three pages are about how the world may be improved--and may seem a bit more speculative, sketchy, or utopian than what has gone before. Undeniably, HIV binds to CD4 molecules. CD4 molecules are self molecules and thus the immune system is constrained from using the CD4 configuration in an antibody. (This is another example of the law of organizational constraint.) However we think that CD4 molecules might be embedded in a matrix and made use of outside the body in a alternate treatment for AIDS. We�re not sure it would work, but think it�s a possibility worth discussing. If it did work, it would have the potential of sustaining the life of the patient for an indefinite period. It would simply remove HIV from a patient's blood and that would not lead to the creation of drug-resistant HIV. CONTINUE |
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