"AIDS: Long Research Road Still Looms Ahead"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"AIDS: Long Research Road Still Looms Ahead"

Science News (12/15/90) Vol. 138, No. 24, P. 375
Weiss, R.

Abstract: Three recent basic research reports in the journal Science indicate that management of HIV remains elusive, though positive strides have been made. Researchers from Repligen Corp. identified a chain of six amino acids which, when used to vaccinate guinea pigs, induced antibodies that neutralized widely divergent strains of HIV. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine used a new in vitro system that mimics an AIDS patient's brain to show that macrophages may be the cause of HIV-induced dementia. The new system helped researchers identify and test compounds secreted by macrophages, which build up in an HIV-infected brain, to assess the effects on neurons. Studies indicate some neuronal destruction occurs through macrophage-secreted neurotoxins in much the same way as brain damage in stroke, and drugs that limit such brain damage may be useful in AIDS. On the darker side, Columbia University researchers said soluble CD4 therapy may not be as promising as was thought, because viruses may be able to evolve mutants that escape binding to decoys but can infect healthy cells.

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