Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Thursday July 2 2:02 PM EDT
Michael Smith, UPI Science News
The molecules _ called beta-chemokines _ are found at high levels in people who are resistant to HIV, Gallo told a plenary session of the 12th World AIDS Conference Thursday.
The molecules and the AIDS virus compete for entry to cells, so that high beta-chemokine levels may block the virus from entry, said Gallo, director of the Institute for Human Virology in Baltimore.
With Luc Montagnier of France, Gallo is credited with being the first to isolate the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.
The normal role of beta-chemokines in the body is to act as signallers among the cells of the immune system. To carry their messages, they lock into a 'receptor' molecule, called CCR5, on the cell surface.
HIV, it was announced in late 1996, can use the same receptor to infect an immune cell.
Gallo cited three beta-chemokines in particular _ dubbed RANTES, MIP- 1-alpha and MIP-1-beta _ and produced data showing that some people who are resistant to HIV have abnormally high levels of these chemokines.
Among other data, he cited a study of hemophiliacs who received infected blood many times between 1980 and 1985, but remained free of HIV. Their blood, he said, showed they had beta-chemokine levels ``about 2 1/2- to four-fold higher than all of the control groups.''
One drawback to using beta-chemokines, Gallo admitted, is that they carry signals _ and the signals can cause increased growth of HIV itself. But he said it is easy in the lab to create varieties of the beta-chemokines ``so you lose the signalling....You don't have the increased virus, but you do have the anti-viral effect.''
Gallo also said researchers should aggressively investigate other possible therapeutic targets, including an HIV protein known as tat and a substance found in the body called alpha-interferon.
The protein, secreted by HIV-infected cells, paralyses the killer T- cells that are necessary for an immune response. Alpha-interferon has the same effect, he said.
But working in collaboration with French researchers, he said, he has been able to show that neutralizing the protein and the alpha-interferon restores the T-cells to their normal function. Early human trials are underway now, he said.
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