Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - Friday, February 14, 1997 - Page A11
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
In a wide-ranging discussion of the current state of AIDS therapy and the possibilities of the ultimate triumph -- an effective, cheap and universal preventive AIDS vaccine -- Gallo described some new approaches that he believes are providing promising results.
Gallo outlined the current work of his new Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore during an interview at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He and his colleagues, he said, have been able to determine the active compound that in early human trials has proven to be effective against the deadly lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma. The same substance also has shown strong anti- viral activity in a few humans. Researchers in other countries are seeing similar results, he said.
The substance seems to be a peptide protein associated with a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, he said. That hormone plays a crucial role during early development of the fetus.
Researchers are unsure yet whether the substance is a single protein or a combination of several.
The finding, he said, came about inadvertently when a colony of mice in his laboratory were placed in a cage containing males and females. As some of the females became pregnant, they appeared to be protected against the spread of transplanted human Kaposi's sarcoma cells. The transplanted cells, Gallo said, actually began disappearing, and although purified preparations of the hormone proved to be ineffective, the natural gonadotrophin did work.
The substance appears to promote the growth of bone marrow cells as well as the precursors of other cells in the bloodstream, Gallo said. And in at least one European trial, which has not yet been published, the hormone product apparently killed the AIDS virus in terminally ill patients, Gallo said.
"We still know too little about the stuff," Gallo warned. "We haven't sequenced its chemical structure. We don't know the doses to use, or the route for administering it. But we do have a hope that we've found a new nontoxic weapon against AIDS."
The recent excitement over protease inhibitors, which in combination with earlier virus-fighting compounds have reduced the load of HIV in AIDS patients to undetectable levels and restored health to many seriously ill patients, has led some experts to proclaim that the disease has been virtually conquered -- at least among AIDS patients who can afford the drugs and are patient enough to use them despite the difficulties of taking doses day and night.
"Therapy is going well for these AIDS patients," Gallo said, "but many of us are saying `wait a minute, it's early times yet.' " The drugs have only been in use for a year or two, Gallo noted, and because there are many known strains of HIV, some may yet prove to be resistant, he warned.
Although the virus may be undetectable in the bloodstream of patients treated with the protease inhibitor combinations, Gallo said, it may still remain hidden in other organs, according to Gallo and some other scientists.
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