Worth posting.....
New AIDS drug may be helpful in treating
hepatitis B
BOSTON - A medicine approved last month to treat AIDS also shows
promise against hepatitis B.
The drug, 3TC, suppresses the hepatitis B virus in people with chronic
infections, stopping its damage to the liver, researchers reported.
About 1 million Americans are thought to be infected with hepatitis B,
which, left untreated, can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer
in a small proportion of victims. Perhaps 20% have lingering infections
that would benefit from treatment.
"It's a preliminary study, but this is promising. It looks like it has the
potential to make a significant impact on hepatitis B," said Dr. Jules L.
Dienstag of Massachusetts General Hospital, who directed the study.
Currently, the only treatment for hepatitis B is interferon. This therapy
can permanently eliminate the virus in about one-third of patients. It
must be injected for four to six months and often has unpleasant side
effects, including flu-like symptoms, fatigue and depression.
In the latest study, doctors found that 3TC appeared to knock out the
virus permanently in about 20% of patients when given for three
months. Dienstag said he hopes that with longer treatment, this
response rate can be doubled.
Unlike interferon, 3TC is given in pill form and carries few side effects.
Dienstag's study, conducted on 32 patients, was published in
Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It was
financed by Glaxo Wellcome Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C.,
which makes 3TC.
The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in
November for use against AIDS. It is also known as lamivudine or
Epivir.
"This is very important, because it represents the prospects of a new
way of treating hepatitis B," said Dr. Adrian DiBisceglie of St. Louis
University Health Sciences Center.
Both hepatitis B and the AIDS virus need a protein called
reverse-transcriptase to reproduce. 3TC is one of a group of drugs,
known as nucleoside analogues, that block production of this protein.
Doctors have tested similar AIDS drugs, such as AZT, against hepatitis
B. But all except 3TC have turned out to be ineffective or too toxic.
Dr. Jay Hoofnagle of the National Institutes of Health said a next step
will be to combine 3TC with interferon to see if the two drugs together
improve the chance of curing hepatitis B.
"It looks extremely promising," he said of 3TC . "It's not the answer,
but it's a step in the right direction."
A separate report in the journal, conducted by Dr. Joseph J. Eron and
others from the University of North Carolina, described the ability of
3TC to suppress the AIDS virus when combined with AZT, another
AIDS drug. The FDA used that information when it approved 3TC. |
