Ignore the science, pay the price II

Here's a prediction that I have a tad more faith in than my last one:

A cure for HIV/AIDS will never be found without an understanding of evolution.

Corollary: Application of that which is understood is preceded by acceptance of same.

A recent paper in PLoS Computational Biology, Dynamic Correlation between Intrahost HIV-1 Quasispecies Evolution and Disease Progression, describes the results of phylogentic analysis of HIV in infected patients, and found that HIV evolves faster initially, and then slows down as the immune system gets weaker.

Digest from News-Medical.net:

As the virus mutates, giving birth to viral offspring called quasispecies, it presents an ever-changing face to the immune system, which is continually adapting itself to keep up with the onslaught. The immune system does a remarkable job fending off the assault, killing most of the viral particles every day. Even so, some of the virus is able to elude the body's defenses and ultimately devastates the immune system in most patients.

(Good review of the PLoS article, except for the fact that they write that HIV "develops" resistance when they mean "evolves.")

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This is the second post in the Ignore-the-science-pay-the-price series. First.