MEDICAL UPDATE: Update on TAT Inhibitors

MEDICAL UPDATE: Update on TAT Inhibitors

Being Alive Newsletter, Being Alive/Los Angeles - April 1992
presented by Mark Katz MD and reported by Jim Stoecker

We have reported extensively on tat inhibitors. Tat, you may recall, is a gene needed by HIV for reproduction. If inhibited, of course, HIV is stopped in its tracks. The tat gene is only found in HIV; it does not exist in the body outside of the virus. This makes tat inhibitors a super specific, and hence very exciting, antiviral therapy.

Hoffman-LaRoche, the makers of ddC, are developing a tat inhibitor that is now in Phase I study at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Researchers feared that rapid resistance might develop, as recently happened with the "L" drugs. So far, however, resistance has not been a problem and a report on the Phase I study is due to be released soon.

Reports out of Baltimore indicate that Hoffman-LaRoche sees great promise in their tat inhibitor and are giving the drug's development a full go-ahead. If this one works (and we all know from experience how big that "if" is), this could be the breakthrough that we all have been waiting for.
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