Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Wall Street Journal - December 7, 1995
Robert Langreth, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In the test tube, these proteins, which are produced by human immune cells, prevent the AIDS virus -- or HIV -- from reproducing. Scientists said they believe that patients with slowly progressing AIDS may have higher levels of these "HIV suppressors" in their bloodstream than patients who get sick relatively quickly.
The discovery is likely to set off an intense race among medical researchers to see if new treatments can be developed based on the suppressor proteins.
"This is an important advance toward understanding how the body might protect itself against the spread of the AIDS virus," said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "It definitely opens up new avenues of [drug] research."
Researchers cautioned that any such new drugs -- if possible at all -- are many years off. They said they don't yet know how the suppressor proteins work, nor have they proven the theory that the proteins delay the onset of full-blown AIDS in some patients.
The new findings have roots that go back nearly 10 years, when scientists noticed that human immune system cells called CD8-plus cells produce mysterious proteins that seemed to stop the AIDS virus from replicating. At the time, however, they couldn't nail down the chemical structure of the proteins.
Now two separate groups of researchers report they have identified no less than four suppressor proteins. The first team, led by the University of Maryland's Robert Gallo, a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, isolated three closely related proteins from human immune cells. When mixed in a test tube with the AIDS virus, the three worked in concert to stop the virus from duplicating. The findings will be reported in next week's issue of Science.
In a separate report in this week's Nature, Michael Baier and his colleagues from Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute said they discovered a fourth suppressor protein, apparently unrelated to the other three. It turns out to be a previously known substance called interleukin 16.
Dr. Gallo said his team has made progress toward understanding how the suppressor proteins might work and soon will begin animal tests to determine if therapies based on the proteins are possible.
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