SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (SF) - MONDAY October 31, 1988 Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: A4 Word Count: 541
Charles Petit, Chronicle Science Writer

In test tubes, a specific protein in the hepatitis B virus causes a key gene of the AIDS virus to increase activity tenfold, the researchers say in a paper published in the November issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The UC team said that the finding means that people who are at high risk of getting AIDS, but are not yet infected, could help protect themselves by being vaccinated against hepatitis B. VACCINATIONS MAY HELP

"I would recommend that people like physicians and nurses and health workers in general who have not been infected with hepatitis B, or with HIV (the AIDS virus) but might be exposed to both, get a vaccination for hepatitis B," Dr. T.S. Benedict Yen, assistant professor of pathology at UCSF and leader of the research group, said in an interview last week.

Others on the project include Edward Seto and Dr. B. Matija Peterlin at UC San Francisco, and Jing-Hsiung Ou of the University of Southern California.

Yen stressed that the work is far from finished and that people already infected with the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus may actually make their conditions worse if they now get vaccinated against hepatitis B.

Other AIDS researchers warned not to make too much of the new report because in test tube experiments many agents, including other viruses, seem to stimulate activity of HIV.

"As long as it is just research in test tubes, it may not mean anything," said Flossie Wong-Staal, head of molecular genetics in blood diseases and a leading AIDS researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Washington. "The real relevance is what happens in vivo (in people), and we don't know that yet."

Soon after the AIDS epidemic was recognized in 1981, medical scientists realized that 90 percent or more of victims were also infected with hepatitis B. Before the AIDS virus was identified, some researchers blamed the hepatitis B virus directly for AIDS.

The UC group added various proteins in the hepatitis B virus to laboratory colonies of human cells whose genes also contained AIDS genes. One, called the X protein, triggered a surge in activity by a key gene in the AIDS virus that helps turn infected cells into factories for more viruses.

Conflicting Evidence

Other evidence suggests, however, that any kind of infection may also accelerate appearance of AIDS in people infected by HIV, which lurks in cells of the immune system, AIDS researchers have found.

For this reason, Yen said it may be dangerous for people already infected with the HIV virus to be vaccinated against hepatitis B because the inoculation may actually increase their chance of getting AIDS.

Many scientific questions remain, he added.

For the hepatitis virus protein to give the AIDS virus the stimulation observed in the test tube, it would have to be in the same cells as the AIDS virus. The next phase of the research is to learn whether people with both AIDS and hepatitis have such "doubly infected" cells.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1988. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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