The New York Times - September 10, 1984
Harold M. Schmeck Jr.

Cloning the genes of the virus is considered an important step in the research aimed at developing a treatment for AIDS. Once the genes have been cloned, they can be grown in large quantity. Copies of individual genes can be used to turn laboratory bacteria or yeast into living factories that can manufacture large quantities of key substances from the virus. Such laboratory-grown substances might be used for improved diagnostic tests or as a vaccine against the disorder.

At present there is no vaccine against AIDS and no known effective treatment. Experts estimate that most patients diagnosed as having AIDS will die of the disease.

Released Before Publication

The report of the successful cloning was made by scientists of the Chiron Corporation, a biotechnology company in Emeryville, Calif. They used a virus discovered by a research team at the University of California at San Francisco led by Dr. Jay A. Levy. Leaders of the research project at Chiron were Dr. Paul A. Luciw and Dr. Dino Dina.

Customarily such findings are reported first by publication in a scientific journal, but research on AIDS has been characterized by intense international competition. Evidently as a result of this competitive atmosphere, officers of Chiron announced their accomplishment yesterday, giving a description of the process by which the cloning was achieved but without waiting for formal publication. Dr. Dina said such a scientific report was being prepared.

Since the existence of AIDS first became known in 1981 there has been a worldwide search for its cause and for ways of treating or preventing it.

Most of the approximately 6,000 known victims of the disease are homosexuals. Others considered at high risk of developing AIDS include people who take drugs by injection and such people as hemophiliacs who need frequent blood transfusions or blood products.

A Fear That AIDS May Spread

Experts are concerned over the possibility that the disease might spread more widely. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the Federal agency responsible for surveillance of AIDS cases, reported recently that more than 76 percent of all AIDS patients diagnosed before July 1982 had died.

AIDS patients suffer a catastrophic decline in their immune systems, making them easy targets for infection. They also commonly develop cancers of a kind thought to be related to serious defects in immunity. Scientists believe AIDS is probably caused by a virus or viruses that deplete the immune system of important defensive cells of a class called T lymphocytes. Many different treatments including bone marrow transplants have been tried without success.

While scientists are working intensively toward the goal of developing a vaccine, many of them concede that the task may be extremely difficult because the disease presents so many mysteries and because it seems to begin with damage to the immune system, which must be engaged for any vaccine to be effective.

Viruses discovered by three research teams have been implicated recently as probable causes of AIDS.

Experts suspect that all three are either the same virus or are closely related.

Because any virus that causes AIDS would be extremely dangerous, research workers might be hesitant to try to create a conventional vaccine made from whole live viruses or even from killed viruses. A vaccine made from portions of the virus's surface, and produced without any use of whole virus, would appear to be safer, provided such a vaccine would be effective in stimulating immunity to the cause of the disease. Cloning of the virus's genes is a first step toward such a product.

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