Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: JOHN W. who wrote (2759)	11/13/1997 5:47:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 6136

John, As I said a month or two ago, Dr. Ho is overly optimistic: BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE November 13, 1997 Edited by Douglas Harbrecht THE AIDS DRUG COCKTAIL IS STILL NO CURE In a highly publicized development last year, a few AIDS researchers began to suggest that a cure could be in sight for the scourge of AIDS. Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and others based this hope on encouraging results from a potent combination of three drugs. The drugs were able to reduce the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels in many patients. Ho and colleagues suggested that using these drugs to keep HIV in check in the blood could enable the body to clear itself of all traces of the virus within three years. However, two new studies published in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science show that hopes of a cure are vastly premature. The separate studies reveal that despite up to 30 months of treatment with the potent drug cocktail, the virus still lurks hidden in the immune-system cells of patients. That helps explain why patients who skip doses or stop taking their drugs see blood levels of the virus soar again. And it means that victims will probably have to keep taking the expensive drug combination (assuming that the drugs continue to work and their often-serious side effects can be kept in check) for the rest of their lives. "The bad news is that we can't yet get rid of the virus entirely," says Dr. Robert F. Siliciano of Johns Hopkins, the leader of one of the studies. That's why many scientific groups are now stepping up efforts to find other ways of attacking the virus, such as manipulating biochemical pathways -- involving molecules called chemokines -- that are crucial to viral entry into cells. By John Carey in Washington

To: JOHN W. who wrote (2759)	11/13/1997 5:52:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 6136

Note that Dr. Ho is a co-author of the paper: Identification of a Reservoir for HIV-1 in Patients on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy Diana Finzi, Monika Hermankova, Theodore Pierson, Lucy M. Carruth, Christopher Buck, Richard E. Chaisson, Thomas C. Quinn, Karen Chadwick, Joseph Margolick, Ronald Brookmeyer, Joel Gallant, Martin Markowitz, David D. Ho, Douglas D. Richman, Robert F. Siliciano * The hypothesis that quiescent CD4+ T lymphocytes carrying proviral DNA provide a reservoir for human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) in patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was examined. In a study of 22 patients successfully treated with HAART for up to 30 months, replication-competent virus was routinely recovered from resting CD4+ T lymphocytes. The frequency of resting CD4+ T cells harboring latent HIV-1 was low, 0.2 to 16.4 per 106 cells, and, in cross-sectional analysis, did not decrease with increasing time on therapy. The recovered viruses generally did not show mutations associated with resistance to the relevant antiretroviral drugs. This reservoir of nonevolving latent virus in resting CD4+ T cells should be considered in deciding whether to terminate treatment in patients who respond to HAART. D. Finzi, M. Hermankova, T. Pierson, L. M. Carruth, C. Buck, R. E. Chaisson, T. C. Quinn, J. Gallant, R. F. Siliciano, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. K. Chadwick and J. Margolick, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. R. Brookmeyer, Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. M. Markowitz and D. D. Ho, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. D. D. Richman, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093, USA. * To whom correspondence should be addressed.