Chicago Tribune (CT) - THURSDAY, December 7, 1995 Edition: NORTH SPORTS FINAL Section: NEWS Page: 10 Word Count: 783

AIDS researchers said the discoveries, reported in papers released Wednesday by two major scientific journals, could have profound implications for the prevention and treatment of infections with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

The notion that there was something produced by the body that in some cases stopped the AIDS virus from reproducing was first suggested a decade ago by Dr. Jay Levy of the University of California in San Francisco, but the substance itself had proved elusive and many scientists had doubted it existed at all.

The new reports described not one chemical but several, all of them released by white blood cells, and none of them very well understood. Both reports assert that in laboratory tissue cultures of human cells, one or more of these natural chemicals stop HIV from replicating.

The research done so far is basic, and any application to treating people with AIDS would be far off. "From a conceptual standpoint, it's very important," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

But, he cautioned, people should be wary of assuming that the chemicals in question will be useful as a treatment. More than a decade of experience with AIDS has taught him, he said, that many things that look great in the test tube, "never make it to the major league."

"It's very exciting," said Dr. Bruce Walker, director of the AIDS research center at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. But, he also urged caution. The chemicals "may have other effects on the body, including potentially toxic effects, if given in large amounts."

Nonetheless, AIDS researchers say, the current reports clearly open new pathways for research, apart from treatment. The findings may offer clues to why the virus never takes hold in some people who repeatedly are exposed to it through risky behavior, and why, even among infected people, some live into a second decade without becoming ill while others fall ill within a few years of an HIV infection.

In addition, the action of these immune system chemicals might help explain the central mystery of AIDS vaccine research: what reaction by the body must a vaccine elicit to protect against HIV infections?

At the same time as the discoveries are creating a buzz among researchers, they reveal, once again, the intense rivalries in this difficult field and the extraordinary complexity of AIDS research.

One of the papers was rushed into print as a letter to the editor rather than a full article in Nature, a British science journal, when its author, Dr. Reinhard Kurth, president of the Paul Erlich Institute in Langen, Germany, realized he had competition.

He learned that Dr. Robert Gallo, formerly of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and now director of the new Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland, had a similar result.

Gallo's paper, scheduled to be published in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Science, was released Wednesday evening to share the spotlight with Kurth's paper.

Moreover, the two groups have found different substances. Gallo and his colleagues, including Dr. Paolo Lusso, who is now at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, report the effects of three chemicals known as chemokines, which are released by one type of white blood cell when a foreign substance in the body produces an inflammation. The chemokines had never been linked to antiviral action. But the new study showed that in concert they stop HIV from growing.

Kurth and his colleagues report, from studies of African green monkeys, on a product of white blood cells in these monkeys, a hormone known as interleukin 16, also involved in the immune system's inflammatory response. Interleukin 16, according to this study, also stops the AIDS virus. Human cells produce a nearly identical hormone.

In Washington, meanwhile, President Clinton told AIDS activists Wednesday that he will fight to protect AIDS funding from budget cuts, saying that taking money away could jeopardize those with the disease.

At the first White House Conference on HIV and AIDS, Clinton said he would oppose any effort by Congress to undermine funds for AIDS research or to reduce Medicaid programs for the sake of balancing the budget. Nearly half of all 190,000 AIDS sufferers and 90 percent of children with AIDS are covered by Medicaid.

CAPTION: PHOTO: AIDS activists demonstrate outside the White House on Wednesday as a national conference on AIDS and HIV took place inside. The protesters called the event a Clinton re-election gimmick. AP photo.

951207
CT951202

ÆGIS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, iMetrikus, Inc., John M. Lloyd Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, 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.

Copyright ©1980, 2003. AEGiS. All materials appearing on ÆGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of ÆGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.