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Biotech / Medical : ADVR - Bulls no Bears -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bernie Bildman who wrote (858)	10/24/1997 11:38:00 PM
From: garden_man	Respond to of 913

Here is the full blown article. October 24, 1997 Researchers Find a Molecule That Protects Cells From HIV Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Researchers have identified a natural molecule that prevents HIV from infecting cells, a basic discovery they say could lead eventually to powerful new types of AIDS drugs or even a vaccine. The molecule, discovered by a Maryland-based team led by famed AIDS researcher Robert Gallo, works against HIV by physically blocking the portal used by the virus to invade lymphocytes and other types of blood cells. The study by Mr. Gallo and his team will be published Friday in the journal Science. Mr. Gallo's team at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, earlier identified three similar molecules, all called chemokines. But the new molecule is much more effective because it protects all the cell types attacked by HIV, Mr. Gallo said. Flooding the body with these chemokines could create a barrier between HIV and its target cells, and, thus, prevent the virus from spreading its deadly infection, Mr. Gallo said. "Its breadth of activity and its potency will make it more important than any of the other chemokines found so far," Mr. Gallo said in an interview. But he emphasized that before chemokines can be tried against HIV in humans, the molecules must be extensively tested in monkeys against a related virus called simian immunodeficiency virus. Such testing could take several years. Discovery of the new chemokine comes just as doctors report that some AIDS virus is developing a resistance to the three-drug combination that has successfully suppressed HIV in thousands of patients. That combination of reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors works against the virus inside the target cell. Chemokines would work against HIV by preventing the virus from entering those cells. The virus is thought to be less able to develop a resistance against this blocking action. The discovery "sounds very promising" as a new type of treatment against the disease, said Patricia D'Souza, an AIDS researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "This chemokine appears to inhibit the viruses that appear early, as well as those that develop later," Ms. D'Souza said. "It might be really valuable in preventing infection, as well as preventing the progression of the disease." Chemokines have been the subject of intense study by AIDS researchers since the discovery a decade ago that the molecules somehow work to suppress HIV, and are secreted by immune-system blood cells in response to HIV infection. Their natural function is to attach to white blood cells, which are the body's major disease fighters, and guide those cells to the site of an infection. Earlier research showed that chemokines attached to white blood cell surfaces at the same points, called receptors, that were used by the HIV virus. The scientists also found that some strains of HIV concentrated on one type of receptor, while other strains targeted other receptors. Mr. Gallo and his team earlier identified three chemokines that were able to block an HIV strain that mainly attacked macrophages, one type of blood cell. The new chemokine is able to block not only the HIV strains that attack macrophages, but also the virus that attacks T-cells, the principal warrior of the immune system and the primary target of HIV, Mr. Gallo said. "This chemokine is so broad that it also blocks SIV," or simian immunodeficiency virus, the monkey equivalent of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, Mr. Gallo said. "That means we can go right into testing on monkeys. This is a major step forward." If the chemokines prove effective, he said, it may be possible to control HIV infection with periodic injections of a "cocktail" of several types of chemokines. "It would be like using insulin shots to control diabetes," Mr. Gallo said. It may also be possible to create a vaccine that prompts the body to produce high amounts of the HIV-specific chemokines. That, in theory, could prevent the initial HIV infection.