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Biotech / Medical : Agouron Pharmaceuticals (AGPH) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JOHN W. who wrote (2718)	11/11/1997 11:19:00 AM
From: Izzy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

John W.: Very informative post. Wonder if Viracept was used.

To: JOHN W. who wrote (2718)	11/13/1997 5:56:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 6136

Here's the other abstract from Science: Recovery of Replication-Competent HIV Despite Prolonged Suppression of Plasma Viremia Joseph K. Wong, * Marjan Hezareh, Huldrych F. Gnthard, Diane V. Havlir, Caroline C. Ignacio, Celsa A. Spina, Douglas D. Richman In evaluating current combination drug regimens for treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, it is important to determine the existence of viral reservoirs. After depletion of CD8 cells from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of both patients and normal donors, activation of patient CD4 lymphocytes with immobilized antibodies to CD3 and CD28 enabled the isolation of virus from PBMCs of six patients despite the suppression of their plasma HIV RNA to fewer than 50 copies per milliliter for up to 2 years. Partial sequencing of HIV pol revealed no new drug resistance mutations or discernible evolution, providing evidence for viral latency rather than drug failure. J. K. Wong, M. Hezareh, H. F. Gnthard, C. C. Ignacio, C. A. Spina, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. D. V. Havlir, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, 9500 GIlman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA, and Treatment Center, University of California, San Diego, 2760 Fifth Avenue, Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92103, USA. D. D. Richman, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA, and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92063, USA. * To whom correspondence should be addressed.

To: JOHN W. who wrote (2718)	11/13/1997 6:23:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6136

Here's what Reuter's had to say: W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 13 - Scientists who helped develop the "cocktail" of three drugs now used widely to keep AIDS at bay in people infected with HIV admit that it cannot cure the infection. They said tests showed the AIDS virus still lurks in the immune system cells it infects, even after years of taking the powerful drugs. "The bad news is we can't yet get rid of the virus entirely. The number of immune system cells that remain infected with HIV declines only very slowly," said Dr. Robert Siciliano, an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "But the good news is that as long as people infected with HIV keep taking the triple-drug cocktail, they have an excellent chance of surviving the infection for a long time, without developing symptoms of the disease." Tests have shown that triple therapy, using a combination of three different AIDS drugs, can knock the virus down to undetectable levels after two to four months. The usual regime consists of two of the first-generation of AIDS drugs such as AZT, ddI or 3TC and known as reverse transcriptase inhibitors, plus a protease inhibitor such as saquinavir or ritonavir. When the results were announced at a big AIDS conference last year, researchers dared to whisper the word "cure," although only very softly and tentatively. Just One Bad Cell . Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York and colleagues at first planned to take one of their patients off the drugs, first after 18 months, then after two years. But they shelved those plans after tests showed the virus still hiding in the body, and even one infected cell could release enough virus to reinfect a person. Ho said earlier this year that mathematical models showed the virus could be completely eradicated after three years, but now abandons even this hope in a report in the journal Science. The Johns Hopkins and Aaron Diamond researchers looked for HIV in 22 patients who had been on the cocktail therapy for as long as 30 months. People on this cocktail therapy have to take handfuls of pills every day-many at set times. The side-effects can be very unpleasant and include nausea, so this group was watched very carefully to make sure they took every pill on time. HIV Presistent "We studied patients whose viral loads had been undetectable for prolonged periods of time," said Dr. Joel Gallant, director of the AIDS outpatient clinical at Johns Hopkins. Nonetheless, the researchers were able to routinely tease HIV out of "resting" CD4 cells-helper T-cells that had been infected but were not currently in replicative phase. "The team also showed that when the resting cells were stimulated to reproduce, the AIDS virus also replicated," said Diana Finzi, a postgraduate student who led the work. But there was some positive news. While on the triple-drug regime, all the patients grew more healthy, uninfected immune system cells. Also, the virus was not able to replicate-so it was also not able to mutate into new, drug-resistant forms. "So this is a strong argument for not taking these patients off triple-drug therapy," Siciliano said.