Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - March 22, 1983
That possibility is of crucial importance, the scientist said, because several centers have used interferon in trying to treat the disease known as AIDS, an acronym for Acquired Immunune Deficiency Syndrome.
"If interferon is responsible for some of the disease symptoms, attempts to use it for the treatment of AIDS will only add insult to injury and it would be more appropriate to devise methods for removing interferon from the patient's body," said Dr. Jan T. Vilcek of the New York University Medical School.
Dr. Vilcek told an American Cancer Society seminar for science writers Sunday that the discovery of the odd form of interferon in AIDS patients also suggested that prevailing theories about the cause of the disease might be wrong.
Most researchers believe AIDS is caused by an unknown virus. But, Dr. Vilcek said, "this possibility is unlikely, mainly because the interferon found in AIDS patients is different from the interferon produced during common virus infections.
"Another possibility, which I consider more likely, is that the production of interferon is linked to some autoimmune process." The disease, found almost entirely among homosexual men, Haitian immigrants and intravenous drug abusers, seems in some ways similar to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In such diseases, the immune system, which is supposed to fight invading organisms, goes awry and mistakenly attacks the body.
AIDS is a newly discovered disease that knocks out the immune system. Without the natural defenses against invading germs, its victims are open to a host of diseases, including a cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare form of pneumonia and an array of other "opportunistic" infections.
The disease was first reported in June 1981. Since then, 1,186 American cases have been reported to the national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, according to Dr. James W. Curran of the Federal agency. He said 434 of the victims died.
Dr. Curran said that may be "only the tip of the iceberg," since many more cases may have less serious symptoms not recognized as AIDS.
Nearly two-thirds of the cases have been in New York and California. Dr. Vilcek said AIDS seemed "to have an autoimmune component." "I'm not saying this is a classic autoimmune disease," he added, explaining that "it may be part of the symptomology." Interferon, produced by the immune system to fight virus infections, is normally not detectable in healthy people, Dr. Vilcek said.
But a peculiar type of interferon is found in the blood of patients with an autoimmune disease called lupus, and the same form of interferon is found in AIDS patients, Dr. Vilcek said.
He said his laboratory has found the interferon in 63 percent of homosexual AIDS patients with Kaposi's sarcoma; 29 percent of patients with swollen lymph glands and no other symptoms, and 8 percent of healthy homosexuals. The disease was not found in healthy heterosexuals used as controls.
"Unfortunately, these findings raise more questions than they answer," he said. It's not clear what causes the production of interferon, or why it should be different in those with lupus or AIDS, he said.
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