Chicago Tribune (CT) - Thursday, August 1, 1985, Page: 21
Ronald Kotulak, Science writer

Unlike the existing AIDS blood screening test, which detects antibodies to the AIDS virus, the new test will detect the virus itself, said David Jones, a company spokesman.

It is one of a series of sophisticated tests that the company is developing to not only diagnose acquired immune deficiency syndrome but to help doctors treat the deadly disease, Jones said.

"These tests will be able to tell not only if someone has been exposed to the AIDS virus but if they are developing AIDS, have the full-blown disease or if they are immune to it," he said.

The new AIDS tests are patterned after similar tests Abbott developed to diagnose and monitor the hepatitis virus, he said.

Because the new AIDS tests will have to undergo extensive lab trials, they may not be available for one to two years, he said. Prototype tests for detecting AIDS viral infections have been developed, he said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta estimates that more than 3 million Americans may have been exposed to the AIDS virus, which breaks down the body's immune system. Doctors assume that most of them will not develop AIDS, but nobody knows how many will.

Abbott has made AIDS research a high priority, said company Chairman Robert Schoellhorn. Last March, Abbott was the first company to receive Food and Drug Administration approval to market a test widely used to screen donated blood for AIDS antibodies.

Abbott also is developing a second test to confirm its AIDS antibody blood screening test, a company spokesman said.

The new confirmation test, expected to be available in a few months, is a cheaper and quicker way to check the results of the blood screening test than the method now available, Jones said.

The screening test is designed to detect antibodies to the HTLV-III virus that causes AIDS. But because the screening test is supersensitive, it produces a significant number of false positive results, indicating that AIDS antibodies are present when they are not.

The confirmatory test is designed to eliminate the false positives. The screening test is intended to be supersensitive to reduce the chance that AIDS virus may escape detection in donated blood.

The blood tests detect antibodies produced by the body's immune system to defend against AIDS.

The new diagnostic test will be able to detect the virus, Jones said. This is important because some people who have been exposed to the AIDS virus may not have antibodies.

Other tests in the series will be able to determine whether an infection has begun or whether treatment has sent the disease into remission, he said.

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