Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The mixture of drugs included hydroxyurea, didanosine and the protease inhibitor indinavir. The combination is unique because of the hydroxyurea, which has been used since the 1960s to treat several diseases including chronic leukemia and, more recently, sickle cell anemia.
The mixture was used in 1996 to treat patients in Berlin, Germany in a study by Drs. Franco Lori, Julianna Lisziewicz and Heiko Jessen. Since then, more than 20 patients have been receiving the treatment, and their progress is being monitored closely.
After the one patient stopped treatment last December, HIV was not found in the blood and doctors detected the virus in only one out of 44 million cells in his lymph nodes. By comparison, during other forms of therapy HIV is usually found in at least one out of 70,000 cells. The virus remains undetected in the patient's blood today.
According to the news report in Science, "Many researchers ... were intrigued by the possible role played by hydroxyurea, which is not an approved AIDS drug. 'There must be something that we need to investigate further,' says Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Maybe, says Fauci, the hydroxyurea suppresses the immune system cells that HIV targets."
The use of hydroxyurea to treat HIV was devised in 1993 by Lori while working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After leaving the NIH in 1995, Lori and Lisziewicz established the Research Institute for Genetic and Human Therapy (RIGHT).
Lori and Lisziewicz said today that while the mixture of drugs holds out hope for people who have been recently exposed to the HIV virus, "we are not saying that this represents a cure for or will lead to the eradication of HIV.
"More patients need to undergo this particular therapy and be observed over a longer period of time before any conclusions can be drawn about this approach as a new course of treatment. And since these drugs are toxic if taken in the wrong dosage, this mixture should only be used under a doctor's strict supervision," they said.
RIGHT is a nonprofit organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Pavia, Italy. It is engaged in basic medical research and seeks to bring discoveries at the lab bench to the bedsides of patients by preventing or treating HIV and other serious diseases.
RIGHT's activities to date have been funded by individual corporate donations, and it is now seeking additional funding to continue its work. RIGHT is located at the Georgetown University Medical-Dental Building, Suite SW307, 3900 Reservoir Road, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007. The phone number is 202-687-2833.
Lori, scientific co-director and founder of RIGHT, is an adjunct associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University. He previously served as a visiting associate at the NIH and was adjunct professor at the school of medicine at the University of Verona in Italy.
Lisziewicz is co-director and founder of RIGHT, and is an adjunct associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University. She previously served as the head of an antiviral unit at the NIH.
SOURCE Research Institute for Genetic and Human Therapy
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