The Associated Press - 14 Dec 1995; 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.

The AIDS virus is technically called HIV-1. Researchers found it was hampered by the presence of HIV-2, a related virus that is less able to cause AIDS and takes longer when it succeeds. HIV-2 is found chiefly in Africa.

Scientists have not yet discovered what HIV-2 does to interfere with the AIDS virus, and there is no immediate way to use the test-tube finding in people, said Dr. Jay Rappaport of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who led the research.

But if the hampering process can be identified, it might lead to a therapy to control virus levels in infected people and keep them healthy for a longer time, Rappaport said Thursday. Although less likely, there may also be some implications for a vaccine to prevent infection, he said.

The new work was reported Friday in the December issue of the Journal of Molecular Medicine. Rappaport and his team worked with researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

In an experiment, scientists put the DNA version of both virus's genes into the same cells. They found that later reproduction by the AIDS virus was cut to one eighty-third of its normal rate.

Similar results appeared when the viruses themselves were mingled in the test tube, Rappaport said.

HIV-2 somehow hinders attempts by the AIDS virus to get the cell to make the building blocks needed for reproduction, Rappaport said. It may act directly on the AIDS virus genes or turn on some process in the cell that hampers reproduction, he said.

The lab work seems to run counter to what occurs when a person has both strains of the virus, Dr. Richard Marlink, executive director of the Harvard AIDS Institute, said in Friday's New York Times.

Once a person infected with both viruses developed AIDS, that person tended to die quicker than the one infected only with HIV-1, he said. Marlink said his colleagues presented this finding, based on four years of study of 3,000 AIDS patients in Senegal, at an international AIDS conference this week in Uganda.

In an editorial accompanying the Mount Sinai study, Dr. Z.N. Berneman of Ziekenhuis University in Antwerp, Belgium, cautioned that not much is known about the interaction between the two viral strains, but the observations merited further study.

Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.

951214
AP951219

Copyright © 1995 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.

AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Elton John AIDS Foundation UK, the National Library of Medicine, AIDS Walk of Orange County, and donations from users like you.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1995. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1995. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .