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In the Fall of 1990, two medical researchers, Drs.William Lyman and Steven Kaali, working at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City made an important discovery. They found that they could inactivate the HIV virus by applying a low voltage direct current electrical potential with an extremely small current flow to AIDS infected blood in a test tube. Initially, they discovered this in the lab by inserting two platinum electrodes into a glass tube filled with HIV-1 (type 1) infected blood. They applied a direct current to the electrodes and found that a current flow in the range of  50-100 microamperes (uA) produced the most effective results. Practically all of the HIV viral particles were adversely affected while normal blood cells remained unharmed. The viral particles were not directly destroyed by the electric current, but rather the outer protein coating of the virus was affected in such a way as to prevent the virus from producing reverse transcriptase, a necessary enzyme needed by the virus to invade human cells. Reverse transcriptase allows the virus to enter a human T cell line (called CEM-SS) and commandeer the DNA reproduction machinery. After using the host cell to reproduce itself into thousands of new virii, the swollen host cell (now called syncytia or giant cell) will burst and spew the contents into the bloodstream or lymph system. This is how the virus spreads, but lacking reverse transcriptase, the HIV virus can't invade the host cell and it becomes vulnerable to destruction by the body's immune system.   Getting the Word Out? A brief announcement of this discovery appeared in The Houston Post  (Mar 20, 1991), then in Science News (Mar. 30, 1991 pg. 207) and later in  Longevitymagazine: (Dec.1992 pg. 14). Following their work in the Fall of 1990, Kaali and Lyman presented their findings at the First International Symposium on Combination Therapies (an AIDS conference) in Washington DC on March 14th, 1991. Kaali outlined two methods for treating an AIDS patient with this new therapy: One method involved removing a small amount of blood, electrifying it and then returning it to the patient's body. The second method involved sewing a miniature electrifying power supply along with two tiny electrodes directly into the lumen of an artery. For long term treatment, the mini electrifying unit needed to be removed and relocated to a new artery site after 30-45 days since scar tissue and calcification forming around the implant unit would lead to artery blockage. Kaali (along with co-inventorPeter Schwolsky) filed for a patent on this implantable electrifying device on Nov 16, 1990 and nine months later was granted patent #5,139,684  on August 18, 1992. It's interesting to note two things here:  1. In order to obtain a patent from the United States Patent Office, Kaali and Schwolsky had to prove that the device works as claimed. Lacking solid proof, US patents are simply not granted.  2. Very often it takes years to obtain a patent, yet this patent was granted in only nine months; a further indication to me of the strength of their demonstrated claims  It's also interesting to note that other than the 3 publications mentioned above and the March '91 AIDS conference, nothing again appeared in print, radio, or TV about this important discovery as a potential treatment and cure for AIDS from Kaali and company.

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