A little question about an idea

[Michael McGinnis]

I have an idea to bounce off of someone who knows about viruses.

I write a little science fiction and I like to keep my ideas close
enough to real science so that someone who actually knows about the
field (physics, biology, whatever) would have to think for a few
moments to find any flaws.  If the idea is that plausible then I feel
it's probably good enough for sf.

Idea for fighting retroviruses:

Manufacture a little retrovirus.  It has RNA coding for a cell surface
protein that will trigger an immune response.  But, the retrovirus has
no code for reverse transcriptase and so cannot become active on 
its own.

Inject a person and these little viruses inject their code into cells
around the body, but only in cells actively infected by retroviruses
does the code become active.  In those cells surface protein flags are
manufactured and the immune system easily finds the actively infected
cells.

Alternatively, the "safe" retrovirus has code that causes a cell to
lyse (do I have the word right... dissolve/explode?).

Are there obvious problems with this?

Email replies are preferred.  Thanks.


Michael McGinnis              Internet: mcginnis at kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Computer Center                 Bitnet: mcginnis at ukanvax
University of Kansas             Voice: (913)864-0413
Lawrence, KS  66045                FAX: 9913)864-0485