Good thing SI doesn't have videoconferencing or you would have a seen a red face when the announcement came yesterday and I apologize for my references to the 'hype' on the Immune Response thread. There is a lot of exciting and promising research emerging in Immune Therapy and I'm looking forward to Immune Response's data to be presented in Geneva.
LMOSS from AOL agrees.
Subject: Looking ahead
Date: Thu, Jun 11, 1998 17:56 EDT
From: LMoss
>The collaboration between Agouron and Immune Response expands Agouron's role in what is >likely to be the "gold standard" therapy for fighting HIV in the year 2000. It will probably combine immune system therapy (Remune), a powerful PI (Viracept), an NNRTI (DuPont's Sustiva), and an RTI. Agouron will have 50% of the profits from sales of the first two, and incremental marketing expenses for Remune should be quite low.
>A collaboration with DuPont would seem to make a lot of sense (and cents) for both parties.
>With this array of weapons, HIV is in a lot of trouble!
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The goal in HAART therapy at present is to suppress viral load. The goals will change as data appears that is possible to rebuild, reconstitute, or fortify the patients immune system so that patients develop immune systems more like those of patients who are Long Term Non-Progressors ( LTNP), that is patients who are infected with HIV but do not progress to AIDS 6-12 years after infection. The rational for therapeutic vaccination comes from the observations of these LTNP. Bruce Walker and the group at Mass General found that LTNP had strong HIV-specific CD4+ proliferative responses resulting in production of anti-HIV cytokines, interferon-gamma and beta chemokines. Walker's group believes it is possible to restore the proliferative response by immunizing patients them with HIV vaccines. HAART may provide a window of opportunity during which optimal host immunity to HIV (and other pathogens) may be restored
Patients who are given HAART develop strong proliferative lymphocyte reaction to antigens such as tetanus. Dr. Valentine of NYU has suggested that the LPA or lymphocyte proliferation assay be used as a surrogate marker to decide whether treatment should be continued or stopped. Very simply, the helper cells or CD4 cells in the immune system release cytokines or chemicals that activate the CD8 cells cytolytic T-cell (CTL) which then attack the HIV virus. During early HIV infection the HIV virus kills the CD4 cells so the killer CD8 cells are not activated and the HIV is allowed to replicate.
thebody.com
As TAGline reported in January, strong anti-HIV CD4+ LPA responses have been documented in monkeys inoculated with a DNA vaccine. A preliminary clinical study has demonstrated that this approach is safe for use in humans. At the IHV meeting, Ron Moss of Immune Response Corporation reported that vaccination with the "Salk" HIV-1 immunogen induced strong CD4+ LPA responses to the immunogen itself and to purified p24 antigen derived from the immunogen. Cross-clade (clades B and E) anti-HIV LPA responses were also documented in a small study by Dr. Moss and colleagues. In addition, Dr. Moss reported significantly increased p24 antigen-induced beta-chemokine production (RANTES, MIP-1alpha and MIP-1beta) following immunization with the Salk HIV-1 immunogen.
Finally, a team of NCI researchers have announced the development of an inactivated HIV immunogen that retains the structural and functional properties of HIV's envelope proteins. All told, numerous groups around the world are preparing to begin vaccinating HAART-treated patients with HIV antigens and/or anti-OI antigens. Initial trials will focus on the ability of interventions to induce or augment antigen-specific LPA responses, cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses, and beta-chemokine release.
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