Washington Blade - December 14, 2001

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An on-and-off medication cycle in which people with AIDS take a powerful drug combination for a week and then stop for a week may be able to control HIV, reduce side effects and cut costs in half, a study shows. Researchers at the National Institutes of Allergies & Infectious Disease report that the HIV infection did not grow worse in a small group of patients put on the alternating medication cycle. "If further studies bear out what we've seen so far, it will mean that you can reduce the cost of therapy by 50 percent," said Dr. Mark Dybul, a clinical researcher at NIAID, which is one of the National Institutes of Health. In the study, Dybul and his NIAID colleagues selected 10 HIV patients whose disease was being controlled by highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). He said the study, which appeared in the Dec. 4 publication of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also suggests the on-again, off-again approach may lower the toxicity of the drugs enough to give "a dramatic improvement in a patient's quality of life."

Study: Garlic supplements block AIDS medications

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Garlic supplements, often taken in hopes of lowering cholesterol, can seriously interfere with drugs used to treat HIV, a new federal study concludes. The study makes garlic the second popular herbal remedy found to interact dangerously with prescription drugs. Experts already warn that St. John's wort, which claims to ease depression, can block the effectiveness of several drugs, including AIDS treatments. Doctors "and patients should not assume that dietary supplements are benign therapies," wrote Dr. Judith Falloon of the National Institutes of Health, co-author of the garlic study. NIH researchers recruited 10 people who did not have HIV and gave them doses of an AIDS drug called saquinavir. The volunteers took saquinavir for three days, after which researchers tested the drug's level in their bloodstream. Then they took both saquinavir and garlic supplements for three weeks. Blood levels of the medication dropped 51 percent when it was taken with garlic. A drop that big could cause treatment failure, doctors say.

HIV `snapshots' provide new information

STANFORD, Calif. -- Researchers at Stanford University haven taken new "snapshots" of HIV in the act of binding to two proteins that help the virus infect T-cells, which may lay the groundwork for future therapies to prevent HIV infection, Reuters reported. Dr. Bill Weis and colleagues studied two molecules, DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR, which appear to enhance the efficiency with which HIV infects T-cells. According to Weis, a therapy that could interfere with HIV's interaction with these molecules "would reduce the amount of HIV delivered to the T-cells, reducing the efficiency or probability of infection." In the study, published in the Dec. 7 issue of Science, researchers used a technique called X-ray crystallography to visualize how HIV interacts with DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR. The investigators found that the two molecules both have regions that recognize specific parts of HIV -- specifically, a type of carbohydrate attached to a surface protein on HIV. These interactions "represent a potential target for anti-HIV therapy aimed at disrupting the " interaction at primary sites of infection," Weis concluded.

AMA passes measure to include gay association

SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Medical Association voted Monday, Dec. 3, to include the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association in its Specialty & Service Society. "We are very pleased to be recognized as leaders within our community and have worked very hard over the last 20 years to further the cause of LGBT health care and health care issues," Christopher E. Harris, GLMA president, said in a news release. "Last year we led the effort to recognize the LGBT population's needs in the federal government's blueprint for the nation's health, Healthy People 2010, and succeeded in having many issues of concern for our community included in the document. Now, as the first LGBT medical organization to be admitted to the AMA, we are being recognized on a peer level with other professional medical associations. It has been a long time coming, but it is certainly gratifying." Two days after the GLMA inclusion was voted on, the AMA passed a resolution in support of domestic partner benefits as a direct result of the advocacy of GLMA.

Broccoli may stop breast, prostate cancers

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- According to the results of a study in laboratory rats, a diet containing selenium-enriched broccoli sprouts and florets may protect against breast and prostate cancer, Reuters reported. In the study, Dr. John W. Finley of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota and colleagues injected 90 rats with a cancer-causing chemical and then divided the animals into two study groups that were fed either low-selenium broccoli or high-selenium broccoli as part of their regular diet for 22 weeks. A third group of rats was fed selenium without the broccoli. The broccoli used in the study was specially grown to contain larger amounts of selenium than is available in commercial products, according to Reuters. "Selenium is a toxic element "[but] the advantage of using broccoli is that it is less toxic from broccoli than from other forms," Finley told Reuters. The rats that were fed high-selenium broccoli had a lower incidence of breast tumors at the end of the study period and fewer tumors overall than the rats fed the low-selenium broccoli or the selenium alone, Finley reported in a recent issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

-- Staff and wire reports

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