San Francisco Chronicle; Tuesday, December 2, 1997 - Page A1
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

The cells destroy the virus before it can take over the genetic machinery of other cells in the immune system and thereby prevent the invading virus from reproducing, according to Dr. Jay A. Levy, the virologist at the University of California at San Francisco who was one of the first scientists to isolate the organism that causes AIDS.

To Levy, the discovery of the protective effect of the specialized cells could be the key to developing an effective vaccine.

Levy reported on the new finding at a public meeting yesterday on the UCSF campus, marking the launch of the university's new AIDS Research Institute and at the same time commemorating the annual United Nations-sponsored World AIDS Day.

The new "institute without

walls" is designed to coordinate all the AIDS research, patient care innovations and AIDS prevention activities that are continuing at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital.

Working in his own laboratory for more than 10 years, Levy has been investigating the mysterious properties of cells known as CD8 cells because of their unexplained ability to fight invading AIDS viruses in other immune system cells -- known as CD4 cells -- which the viruses destroy to trigger the onset of the AIDS diseases.

Levy first detected the potential anti-viral power of the CD8 cells among many men who had been infected by HIV, the AIDS virus, and yet had remained free of any hint of disease for as long as 10 to 15 years.

Most recently, Levy and his colleagues studied 56 adults and 31 children, all of whom are considered to be at high risk for AIDS. Many of the adults had been repeatedly exposed to the virus through sexual activity or intravenous drug use, and the children had been exposed while still in the womb. The most sophisticated blood tests available showed that half of the adults and young children remained free of the virus and had not even produced antibodies despite their exposure, Levy said.

According to Levy, the activity of the CD8 cells appears to be controlled by a mysterious protein which neither he nor other scientists have yet to identify completely, but which Levy calls CAF, for CD8 Anti-viral Factor.

In their laboratory experiments, Levy and his colleagues found that the CD4 cells in the blood of all the volunteer subjects were easily susceptible to infection by HIV, but in half the group, CD8 cells blocked the virus from reproducing and protected the invaded CD4 cells from destruction.

In Levy's theory, an attack by small amounts of virus can induce the CD8 cells to start a "cellular immune anti-viral response" and "each subsequent exposure then acts as a kind of booster."

"We seem to have found a natural immune response produced by the virus itself that acts like a vaccination," Levy said in an interview.

As a result, he said, he and his colleagues are intensifying their search for a way to exploit the CD8 cells and the unidentified protein factor that regulates their activity as the key to a full-fledged AIDS vaccine.

Under the aegis of the newly formed AIDS Research Institute at UCSF, Levy said, a broad-based new AIDS vaccine quest is about to begin. It will involve scientists at UC Davis and Stanford as well as UCSF, he said, and will also include researchers at Chiron and Genentech, two leading Bay Area biotechnology companies.

Levy's UCSF colleagues include cancer researcher Sharon Stranford and pediatricians Diane Wara and Peggy Weintrub. The new research will also be discussed today and tomorrow at an international workshop on AIDS vaccines on the UCSF campus.
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